Medieval Literary Genres

Religious Prose

Medieval Religious Prose

Sermons and Homilies Visionary literature: accounts and interpretations of individuals visions of encounters with the divine presence of God Hagiography: saints lives Religious Instruction: Ancrene Riwle Exempla : tales told to exemplify good or evil lives Allegories: narratives to be interpreted on a variety of levels often dream visions
The Dreamer MS Corpus Christi 201

Piers Plowman Pearl

Basic Conventions of Allegory

Everything on the literal level of the story can be interpreted symbolically: characters, settings, tests, etc. The protagonist, an Everyman character, usually embarks on a journey symbolic of the journey through life or to death

Allegorical Levels
Literal: the concrete, historical meaning Typological: connection of events in the Old Testament with events of Christs life in the New Testament: Jonahs 3-day confinement in the belly of the whale prefigures Christs 3-day descent into Hell Moral: the abstract, symbolic meaning of the literal, especially in terms of behavior Anagogical: dealing with the future events of Christian history, heaven, hell, the last judgment: prophecies. Thus the four types of allegory deal with past events (literal), the connection of past events with the present (typology), present events (moral), and the future (anagogical).

Narrative

Types of Narrative
Prose Chronicles Novelle -EitherRomances Fabliaux Bestiaries & Beast Fables Poetry Epics Breton lais

Chronicle
A record of historic or purported historical events
Legendary Histories of Britain William of Malmesbury: c.1125: Gesta Requm Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings) c. 1129: De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiaea (a history of Glastonbury Abbey) Geoffrey of Monmouth: c.1136: Historia Regum Brittaniae.(History of the Kings of Britain) c.1150: Vita Merlinei (The Life of Merlin) Wace:Roman de Brut, c. 1155, Anglo-Norman (French) translation of Geoffrey Lazamon: Brut, c. 1190, Anglo-Saxon (English) translation of Geoffrey

Romance

Romance

Story of heroic adventure often encompassing courtly love: a chivalrous, heroic knight, who, abiding chivalry's strict codes, fights and defeats monsters and giants, thereby winning favour with a beautiful but fickle princess. Traditional Material The matter of Rome: Alexander the Great The matter of France: Charlemagne The Matter of Britain: King Arthur

Major Medieval British Romances

12th c: Anglo-Norman, c. 1175 Thomas dAngleterre, Tristan, 13th c: Welsh Romances The Black Book of Carmarthen Mabinogion: final version 14th c: English Arthurian Romance Alliterative Morte Arthur Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight Chaucer, The Wife of Baths Tale Stanzaic Mort Artu 14th c: Various Romances Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde Gower, Confessio Amantis Popular romances 15th c: Malory, Le Morte Darthur

Breton Lai
Short, rhymed tale of love and chivalry Breton/Celtic troubadour influence Courtliness and magic Investigations into the intricacies of love and honor Exploration of questions of sovereignty in relationships The Lais of Marie de France 11thc.

Middle English Breton Lais

Sir Orfeo, Sir Degar, Sir Gowther, Emar and The Erle of Tolouse, all by anonymous authors Lay le Freine, a translation of Marie de France's Le Fresne The Franklin's Tale from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Sir Launfal by Thomas Chestre (a retelling of a translation of Marie de France's Lanval) Lai du Cor by Robert Biket

Novella
The novella is defined as a short, prose narrative, usually realistic and often satiric in tone. Novella is an Italian word deriving from the feminine form of the word for new. The quality of newness in the novella is, perhaps, best associated with the contemporary subject matter of the stories Novelle (pl.) are based on current local events -- with a viewpoint that ranges from amorous to humorous and satirical to political or moral. The characters in a novella are placed in a realistic setting, complete with the rhythms of everyday life and conversation.

Novella

Fabliau
Originally a French form A comic, bawdy tale with a plot that usually involves a cuckolded husband Characters include peasants, tradesmen, greedy clergy, restless young wives, and young scholars The plots are realistically motivated tricks and ruses. The fabliaux thus present a lively image of everyday life among the middle and lower classes.

Bestiary and Beast Fable

A bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were illustrated volumes that described various real or imaginary animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. A beast fable is a short tale with an explicit moral, often stated at the end as a maxim. Characters in beast fables are personified animals

Lyric Poetry

Secular Lyric Poetry

Ballades: poems with at least three stanzas having the same rhyme and metrical schemes and repeating the same last line: refrain Complaints Reverdies: spring songs Rounds and Dances summer is icumen in Love Songs Courtly Love Aubades: poem or song about lovers parting at dawn

Courtly Love
Humility Courtesy Adultery The Religion of Love
C.S. Lewis

Religious Lyric Poetry

Devotional songs Hymns Marian lyrics Carols
Adam lay ybounden Coventry Carol

Drama

Medieval Religious Drama

Liturgical tropes: gospel dramatizations Mystery plays: Biblical plays Miracle plays: saints lives Morality plays: allegories

Medieval Secular Drama

Interludes and farces: secular plays performed at court Folk plays: pagan and folklore elements in popular festival performances