1. Eras in Literature: Middle Ages
AP English Lit

2. Medieval Lit – Big Questions
What makes a true hero?
Who really shapes society?
Does fate control our lives?
Can people live up to high ideals?

3. Medieval Era (400’s-1500’s) Anglo-Saxon Poets Characteristics
Frequent use of alliteration
Kenning – compound that uses figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Example: grand viðar “bane of wood” = “fire”
Caesura – midline pause
Works of Note
Epic Poem of Beowulf (anonymous)
“The Wife’s Lament”(anonymous)

4. Medieval Era (400’s-1500’s) Medieval Narratives Work of Note:
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Characteristics
Series of stories, each told by a different pilgrim traveling from London to Canterbury, England. The stories reflect the unique personalities and the social status of the speaker. Distinguishes between the frame story (the pilgrims) and the tales they tell.
Use of irony – while calling attention to his characters’ faults, he affirms their essential humanity.

5. Medieval Era (400’s-1500’s) Medieval Romance Characteristics:
Dramatic verse or prose narrative that usually involves adventurous heroes, idealized love, exotic places, and supernatural events
Develops the values of chivalric code, privileges the upper-class
Works of Note
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

6. English Renaissance Poetic Forms Pastoral Sonnet
Represents shepherds in idealized rural settings, yet they use courtly speech.
Typically have metrical patterns and rhyme schemes that help give them a musical quality
Sonnet
14 line poem with rhyme scheme and meter (typically iambic pentameter)
Variations:
Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet (Octave + Sestet) abbaabba cdecde
English/Shakespearean Sonnet (3 Quatrains + Couplet) abab cdcd efef gg
Spenserian Sonnet (3 Quatrains using interlocking rhyme scheme + Couplet) abab bcbc cdcd ee