John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! John Wycliffe and a linguistic revolution John Wycliffe was a prominent theologian. He taught in an Oxford University college and was a critic of corruption in the Church and its great wealth. The most powerful baron of the time, John of Gaunt, brought Wycliffe to, preach in London in support of a campaign to increase Crown revenue by obtaining more money from the Church. He was denounced as the first major English heretic and the most subversive thinker of the later Middle Ages. Wycliffe's followers were insultingly nicknamed Lollards, that is, mumbles. There was a controversy about whether English was an adequate or dignified medium for the divine Word, but the Lollards insisted that English was suitable and perhaps even better than Latin. An admirer of Wycliffe's ideas was a fellow protégé of Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer was inevitably involved in the intellectual and political tensions of his time. He witnessed the Peasants' Revolt and was undoubtedly a sympathiser of the Lollards. Also Chaucer showed concern for some of the corruption and unchristian habits of some of the clergy in England. In fact, his simple Parson in The Canterbury Tales is described as a priest Wycliffe would have approved of: a simple man who loved the Gospels and thought more of his parishioners’ needs than of his own. Geoffrey Chaucer was born about 1343 the son of a rich wine merchant in London. As a young man, he followed Edward III's son to war in France where he was taken prisoner and ransomed by the king himself in 1360. Chaucer grew up in close contact with the royal family and travelled freely between England and France. His journeys also took him to Italy, where he interested in Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. He also became a Member of Parliament for Kent; he was trusted by the Crown and a well-informed participator in the politics. In 1386 Chaucer was dismissed from all his offices and therefore he was left without an income. In this period, he began to work on his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales. In 1389 he was appointed Clerk of the King's Works at Westminster by King Richard II, and, in the same year, Chaucer rented a house at Westminster, where he lived till, he died in 1400. He was the first poet to be buried in what is known as poet's corner in Westminster Abbey. The father of English literature Chaucer is regarded as the father of English literature and as the first major secular poet. He is one of the first English poets to be known by name, his dialect of native London gradually became standard English, thus becoming the basis of Modern English and in The Canterbury Tales, he was able to give a portrait of the English society of his time. Chaucer's works are divided into three periods: French, Italian and English. The French period is so-called because it includes poems modelled on French romance styles and subjects, such as The Remount of the Rose (before 1373) and The Book of the Duchess (ca 1369). The Italian period shows a greater maturity of perception and skill in the manipulation of the metres. To this period belong: The Parliament of Foules (ca 1380), a bird-and-beast fable; The House of Fame (ca 1383); The Legend of Good Women (ca 1385), which is the first known attempt to use the couplet in English, and Trolls and Criseyde (ca 1380-85), a long poem adapted from Boccaccio, The English period is marked by greater realism and includes Chaucer's most famous work, The Canterbury Tules (ca 1387-1400) The canterbury Tales PLOT: The Canterbury Tales is set in spring and tells the story of thirty people men, women, monks and other members of the clergy, artisans, merchants and also the narrator, Chaucer himself - who are going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury in Kent to the shrine of Thomas Becket. They meet at the Tabard Inn in London. The host of the inn suggests that every pilgrim should tell two stories while going to Canterbury, and two coming back. He says that there will be a prize for the best story as well as a penalty for anyone who gives up. All the pilgrims agree and set off. STRUCTURE AND STYLE: The Canterbury Tales is a long narrative poem. Chaucer used ten-syllable lines alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. The work consists of a General Prologue, where the pilgrims are introduced, and twenty-four tales. The tales are usually preceded by a prologue and are sometimes followed by an epilogue at the end. The reporting pilgrim is Chaucer himself; he tells us directly or sometimes ironically what he sees and what he thinks about it. This creates a sort of interplay between real and unreal so that the reader is left to decide whether what he/she is reading is true or not. The tales often have realist elements but in almost every case they strong ideal and moralising base.