Introduction to
Euro-American Literature
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Lecture 2
European Literature of Middle Ages
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Tian Xiangbin
Medieval European Literature
I. Historical Background
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Middle Ages (5th – 15th Century), AD 500 to the
beginning of the Florentine Renaissance in the late
15th century.
● “Dark Ages” by early Renaissance historians
●The Catholic Church as the major unifying
cultural influence with a centralized administration
through its network of bishops.
●Urbanization of northern and western Europe
●The rise of monasticism
●Courtly love
II. Outline of European Literature of the
Middle Ages
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1. Religious literature
 Bible
 --The Hebrew Bible
--The Christian Bible: Christian Bibles include the
books of the Hebrew Bible, but arranged in a different
order: Old Testament, New Testament
 The Old Testament: 39 books of Hebrew Scripture.
 The New Testament: 27 books
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2. Romance (传奇文学，骑士文学)
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Romance was a long composition, sometimes in
verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and
adventures of a noble hero. The central character
of romances was the knight, a man of noble birth
skilled in the use of weapons. He was commonly
described as riding forth to seek adventures, or
fighting for his lord in battle. He was devoted to
the church and the king. The famous romance is "
Adventures of King Arthur and His Knights of the
Round Table. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is
one of the fest.
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3. Heroic Epic
 Beowulf (750 A.D.) (England)
 The Song of Roland (1095 A.D France )
 The Song of the Cid (1140 A.D. Spain)
 Nibelungenlied (1200 A.D. German)
 The Tale of Igor's Campaign (Russia)
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The Song of Roland (1095 A.D.)
 It is said that French literature
 begins with the Song of
 Roland. The story was
 developed from a
 historical incident
 in the career of Charles
 the Great (查理大帝).
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The Song of the Cid (1140 A.D.)
 It is also known in English as The Poem of
the Cid is the oldest preserved Castilian(卡
斯提尔人；位于西班牙的古代王国) epic
poem. Based on a true story, it tells of the
Castilian hero El Cid, and takes place
during the reconquest of Spain from the
Moors.
(The Cid's daughters
after being beaten
and tied up)
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Nibelungenlied (1200)
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The Nibelungenlied, translated as
The Song of the Nibelungs, is an
epic poem in Middle High
German. The story tells of
dragon-slayer Siegfried at
the court of the Burgundians,
勃艮第人 how he was
murdered, and of his wife
Kriemhild's revenge.
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←Departure
Siegfried's Death→
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The Tale of Igor's Campaign is an anonymous
epic poem written in the Old East Slavic
language. The poem gives an account of a
failed raid of Igor Svyatoslavich (d. 1202)
against the Polovtsians of the Don River region.
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4. Popular Ballads
 The Gest of Robin Hood
 Get Up and Bar the Door
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5. Great Poets and Novelist of Middle Ages
 Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy
 Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron
 Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
III. Masterpieces in the Middle Ages
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Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy
 Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron
 Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
 English Ballads: Get up and Bar the Door
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Medieval Europe
Vatican
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Medieval Europe
Medieval Italy
© Binphon 2008
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) ['dænti]
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His fame
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In Italian literature he is known as “the
Supreme Poet”.
“Father of the Italian language”.
Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio
are also known as “the three
fountains” or “the three crowns”.
The Devine Comedy is often considered the greatest
literary work composed in the Italian language.
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Dante
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His life
Born in a prominent family in
Florence, Italy, probably in 1265.
When Dante was 12 he was
promised in marriage to Gemma,
while he had already fallen in
love with Beatrice (first met
when he was 8).
 Not much is known about Dante’s education, it is
presumed he studied at home.
Dante
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His life
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He was active in the politics and was involved in the
Guelph-Ghibelline conflict.
Dante was condemned to exile for
two years by his political enemies
in1302; soon later his banishment
was made perpetual.
He died in 1321 on a diplomatic
journey and was buried in Ravenna.
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Background
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Guelph-Ghibelline conflict
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The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions
supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy
Roman Empire in central and northern Italy.
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Dante’s family was prominent in Florence,
with loyalties to the Guelphs.
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After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs
divided into two factions: the White Guelphs
(Dante’s party) and the Black Guelphs. The
Blacks supporting the Pope and the Whites
wanting more freedom from Rome.
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In 1301 the Black Guelph came into power,
Dante was condemned to exile for two years, and
ordered to pay a large fine.
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The Divine Comedy
– Originally known as “the Comedy”, later added
“Divine” by Giovanni Boccaccio.
– Over 14,000 lines, three parts (canticas):
Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and
Paradiso (Paradise).
– each part consists of 33 cantos. An initial canto
serves as an introduction to the poem; the total
number of cantos is 100.
– The verse scheme is terza rima (3 lines of 11
syllables as one stanza, or “terset”), with the
rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ...
Dante: The Divine Comedy
– Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
– mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
– ché la diritta via era smarrita.
 Midway on our life's journey, I found myself
 In dark woods, the right road lost. To tell
 About those woods is hard—so tangled and rough
– Robert Pinksy translation
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Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
– H. W. Longfellow translation
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Introduction
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Written in the first
 person, it tells of
 Dante’s journey
 through the three realms
 of the dead, lasting during
 the Easter Triduum in the
 spring of 1300.
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The Roman poet Virgil guides him
through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice guides
him through Heaven.
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Written in Tuscan dialect of Italian and
helped establish the Tuscan dialect as the
standard Italian.
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
The Divine Comedy
 Structure
 Introduction
• 3 beasts, unable to
find the way to the
mountain with the
sun, Virgil and
Beatrice
 Inferno (Hell)
• 9 circles
 Purgatorio (Purgatory)
• 7 terraces
 Paradiso (Paradise)
• 9 spheres
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
The Divine Comedy
Dante with 3 beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf)© Binphon 2008
Infeno
Dante gazes at
Mount
Purgatory
Dante and Beatrice speak
to Piccarda and Constance
of Sicily, in Paradis
Literary influence in the English-speaking world
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The work was recognized as a masterpiece in the
first centuries following its publication.
The work was largely ignored during the English
Enlightenment.
It was “rediscovered” by William Blake and the
romantic writers of the 19th century.
Later authors such as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound,
Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce have drawn on
it for inspiration.
The poet Longfellow was its first American
translator.
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
For further study
 Online resources
 Italian with English translation and audio:
• http://www.csupomona.edu/~jelerma/dante/index.html
 Italian with English translation:
• http://www.worldofdante.org/inferno1.html
© Binphon 2008
2.Giovanni Boccaccio
（1313-1375）乔万尼·薄迦丘
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The Decameron
Form：Novel
Author: Boccaccio
Type: Frame stories
Time: 14th century
Place: in Florence in Italy
Setting: Plague
Main Characters:
7 young ladies and 3 young gentlemen
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His life
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Almost certainly an illegitimate, the son of a
Florentine merchant.
Probably born in Paris, grew
up in Florence.
Studied law and banking.
Black Death attacked Florence
in 1348.
Began work on the Decameron
around 1349.
final years troubled by illnesses
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The Decameron
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The title is a combination of two Greek words meaning
“ten” (déka) and “day” (hēméra).
structured in a frame narrative
It begins with a description of the Black Death and
leads a group of 7 women and 3 men who flee from
plague-ridden Florence to a villa in the countryside for
two weeks. 100 stories are told at the end of ten days.
known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its
possibilities from the erotic to the tragic.
Many writers such as Chaucer are said to have
drawn inspiration from this work.
Background
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Black Death (Plague)
thought to have begun in Central Asia or India and
spread to Europe (1348-1350).
 25-50 million people were killed in Europe 30% to
60% of Europe’s population.
 returned to Europe every generation with varying
virulence and mortalities until the 1700s.
Boccaccio
reading from
the Decameron
to Queen
Johanna of
Naples
Questions
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1. What is the cause of the plague?
 2. Hong long could a person live when
infected?
 3. What did people do to protect
themselves?
 4. Did Boccaccio witnessed the terrible
situation in Florance?
 5. Who did survive the plague?
For further study
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Online resources
 http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/petrarch.ht
ml
 www.ProJet-cn.com/yang
 Binphon.blogbus.com
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Match the following
 1) ( ) Poetry
a. The Decameron
 2) ( ) Drama
b. The Divine Comedy
 3) ( ) Novel
c. Poetics
 4) ( ) Essay
d. Oedipus the King