Literatura Inglesa: Prof. Hélcio Lanzoni

Literatura
Inglesa
Prof. Hélcio Lanzoni
19/04/2013
UNISEB
Centro Universitário
Módulo 3.2
Unidade 2
UNISEB
Centro Universitário
What is Literature?
• The word "literature" has different

meanings depending on who is using it. It
could be applied to mean any symbolic
record, including everything from images
and sculptures to letters.
• The term could also mean only text

composed of letters, or other examples of
symbolic written language (Egyptian
hieroglyphs, for example).
3
• Literally translated, the word means
"acquaintance with letters" (from Latin
littera letter).
In Western culture the most basic

written literary types include fiction
and non-fiction.
4
What for?
• Literature?
5
History and Evolution of the English
Language
6
Evolution
• Until 449 ► Celtish

• 450 to 1100 A.D. ' ► Old English
• 1100 to 1500 ► Middle English
• 1500 to 1800 ► Early Modern English
• 1800 until today ► Late Modern English
7
• ► The English Language had a long
period of evolution and transformation
through the centuries.
• ►The transformations of the language

reflect the life and the cultural aspects of
the society from which it is originated.
8
• It can be found in a remote past, before
the Christian era.
• Celts came to Britain between 1200 and
600 B.C., and their language was the first
basis of the English Language.
• Invasions were responsible for the
formation and gradual transformation of
the English Language.
9
Invasions
10
• The Roman Empire – 55
and 54 B.C., under Julius
Caesar command.
• 44 A.D. under Emperor

Claudius command.
11
• Germanic Tribes
• The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes.
12
• Vikings
• From the 8th century to the 9th century.
13
• The English Language had a violent
origin, with a lot of fights and battles.
• First works of English Literature: heroes,

battles, courage and bravery are their
highest values.
14
Literatura – Visão Pragmática
15
The Old English Literature
16
Old English
• Fæder ure
• Fæder ure ðu ðe eart on heofenum,
si ðin nama gehalgod;
to-becume ðin rice;
geweorþe ðin willa
on eorðan swa swa on heofenum.
Urne ge dæghwamlican hlaf syle us to-deag
and forgyf us ure gyltas
swa swa we forgifaþ urum gyltendum,
ane ne gelæde ðu us on costnunge,
ac alys us of yfle.
Soþlice 17
• ► The Old English language, also
called Angle-Saxon, was the earliest form of
English, and it was spoken from about 600
to about 1100 A.D.
• ► The old English texts are completely

different from contemporary English.
• ► The remaining fragments of the Old

English Literature materialize centuries of
the past oral literature tradition and most
have unknown or anonymous authors.
18
• The first known epic in English appeared
in the seventh century.
• (An epic is the story in poetry of the
adventures of a brave man or men.)
• The name of its author is unknown.
19
Beowulf
20
• Beowulf is a hero who kills monsters,
dragons and other representations of the
evil.
• It has Nordic origin.
• He is a typical Anglo-Saxon hero: a loyal
and brave warrior who assumes his
“fate”.
21
• Beowulf is not about England, but about
Hrothgar, King of the Danes, and about a
brave young man, Beowulf, from
Sweden, who goes to help him.
• Hrothgar is in trouble: his city is attacked
by a terrible creature, Grendel, which
lives in a lake and comes to kill and eat
Hrotgar’s men.
22
23
• Then, its mother comes
to the city, in search for
revenge. Beowulf
follows her back to
the lake and kills her there.
• One night, Beowulf waits
secretly for the monster, attacks it, and in
a terrible fight pulls his arm off.
• Grendel manages to go back to the lake,
but dies there.
24
• Beowulf becomes king, and after many
years he has to defend his country
against a dragon.
• He kills the animal but is badly wounded
in the fight and dies.
• The poem end with a sad description of
Beowulf’s funeral fire.
• Alegdon tha tomiddes maerne theoden
haeleth hiofende hlaford leofne
ongunnon tha on beorge bael-fyra maest wigent
weccan wudu-rec astah.
• The sorrowing soldiers then laid the glorious

prince, their dear lord, in the middle. Then on
the hill, the war-men began to light the greatest
of funeral fires.
26
The Battle of Maldon
• The hero is Byrhtnoth.
• He defends England from the Viking

invaders.
27
A statue of Byrhtnoth in Maldon
28
The Latin Language
• Romans brought the Latin language.

• After the Romans, religious missions went
to Christianize the pagan Anglo-Saxons.
• Miracle and Morality plays.
• Versions of parts of the Bible into the
Anglo-Saxon language.
29
The Great Topics in the
Old English Period
• War, battles and heroism.
• Travels and travelers.
• Religious themes.
30
Middle English
• 1066 – Norman Conquest.

• Normandy ruled over England from 1066
to 1399.
• Norman language (French) was imposed
to the English court, and had heavy
influence on the English Language.
• Many words were incorporated to English.
• The Norman influences collaborated to the
consolidation of the English Language,
which became more likely to the English
spoken today.
31
Old x Middle English
• Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære

þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt
hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa cwæð
he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene” (...).
• In þat lond ben trees þat beren wolle, as

þogh it were of scheep; whereof men
maken clothes, and all þing þat may ben
made of wolle. In þat contree ben many
ipotaynes (...).
32
Geoffrey Chaucer and the
“Canterbury Tales”
• Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400).

• His tales describe his society in a sensible
and more realistic way.
• He describes all kinds of people,
professions, social classes, individual
motivations and emotions, beliefs and
relationships.
• Chaucer’s masterpiece: “The Canterbury
Tales” (1386) – it is a mosaic of the
Medieval English world.
33
“The Canterbury Tales”
• 30 pilgrims are going from Southwark to

Canterbury to visit Thomas Beckett
shrine.
• Each pilgrim has to tell two tales on the

way to Canterbury and two other tales on
the way to Southwark.
• Social, moral and religious themes are

presented.
34
• Characters are similar to real people, with
individual particularities as mood, desires,
qualities and faults.
• Most tales put together elements of that
time’s culture and society: humor,
legends, jokes, morals, religion. Economy,
relationships blended with poetical
techniques as alliteration, rhyme,
quotations from literary works and the
bible.
• Most tales: prologue in verse and then the
narrative.
35
• In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
• Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
• To Canterbury with ful devout corage,
• At nyght was come into that hostelrye
• Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye.
• In Southwark at the Tabard, as I lay

• Ready to go on pilgrimage and start
• To Canterbury, full devout at heart
• There came at nightfall to that hostelry
• Some nine and twenty in a company.
36
The Canterbury Tales
http://etc.usf.edu
The Wife of Bath
37
Other Medieval
English Authors
• William Langland – author of Plyers
Ploughman. A poem that describes the
misfortunes of the poor people of his time.
• Thomas Malory – author of several tales

about a legendary and heroic character:
King Arthur and his Knights.
38
Brief Chronology of English
BC 55 Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar.
Celtish
AD 436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete.
449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders
begins.
450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions. Old
English
1066 William, Duke of Normandy, invades and
conquers England.
1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English.
Middle
1348 English replaces Latin as the language of English
instruction.
1362 English replaces French as the language of law.
English is used in Parliament for the first time.
1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins.
1476 William Caxton establishes the first English Early
printing press. Modern
1564 Shakespeare is born. English
39
Activity
Watch a scene from the movie

“The Reckoning” and identify some
Characteristics of the Middle Age.
40

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Literatura

Prof. Hélcio Lanzoni

• The word "literature" has different

• The term could also mean only text

In Western culture the most basic

• Until 449 ► Celtish

• ►The transformations of the language

• 44 A.D. under Emperor

• First works of English Literature: heroes,

• ► The old English texts are completely

• ► The remaining fragments of the Old

• The sorrowing soldiers then laid the glorious

• He defends England from the Viking

• Romans brought the Latin language.

• War, battles and heroism.

• Travels and travelers.

• 1066 – Norman Conquest.

• Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære

• In þat lond ben trees þat beren wolle, as

• Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400).

• 30 pilgrims are going from Southwark to

• Each pilgrim has to tell two tales on the

• Social, moral and religious themes are

• In Southwark at the Tabard, as I lay

• Thomas Malory – author of several tales

Watch a scene from the movie

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