Controversy over Passion Plays. Medieval Section Overview Two linguistic and literary historical...
30
Controversy over Passion Plays
-
Upload
rosaline-pamela-tucker -
Category
Documents
-
view
223 -
download
0
Transcript of Controversy over Passion Plays. Medieval Section Overview Two linguistic and literary historical...
Controversy over Passion Plays
Medieval Section Overview
• Two linguistic and literary historical periods
• Old English—Anglo-Saxon
• Middle English
Beowulf
• Nature of the hero
• Structure of the poem
– Relation to issues of gender
Canterbury Tales
• Estates Satire
• Miller’s Tale—Fabliau—Quitting
• Wife of Bath—Anti-feminist Satire
• Pardoner—
– Spiritual and physical ambiguity
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Text Structured through parallels
• The façade of courtly culture
• Testing of Knightly Identity
Kempe
• Auto-hagiography
Affective piety
Welcome to the early modern period
– Literary Division• Anglo-Saxon or Old English Literature• Middle English Literature• The Early Modern Period, aka The Renaissance
» The Elizabethan Age: reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
» Jacobean Age: Reign of James I (1603-25)» Caroline Age: Charles I (1625-49)» Commonwealth period (1649-1660)
Spenser
The Fairie Queene
• Not a poem to “solve,” but rather to experience
• Exploration of identity
• Exploration of abstract ideas– Red Cross and Una are characters and
concepts
Fairie Queene
• The genres of the FQ--overview
–Epic –Romance–Allegory
Genre--epic
• Long narrative poem
• Serious and formal style
• Heroic, perhaps quasi-divine central figure
• Tells the story of a nation, a tribe or even all of humanity
Genre epic
• Spenser’s epic elements– Begins in medias res– Use of epic simile
• 1.2.16
Genre--Romance
–We’ve already seen some romance–Auerbach’s definition
–Romance—The Letter to Raleigh• ”To Fashion a Gentleman”
–P. 716 (8th) and 777 (9th)–Archaic language
Fairie Queene
• Proem
– The Poetic “I” (stanza one)
– Gloriana (stanza four)
Genre: Allegory
• A darke conceit
• Allegory and levels of meaning
Fairie Queene
• Canto One—Den of Error
• Red Cross Knight I.1.1• Una I.1.4• Wandering Wood I.1.7 and I.1.10• The Den of Error I.1.11 line 96 ff• The Monster Error I.1.14 line 123
Fairie Queene
• Canto One—Den of Error
• Red Cross Knight I.1.1• Una I.1.4• Wandering Wood I.1.7 and I.1.10• The Den of Error I.1.11 line 96 ff• The Monster Error I.1.14 line 123
Error
• From the Latin, errare (to wander)
• What is the nature of this error?
• How does this monster represent this?
• Epic simile, Nile: I.1.21
Archimago Episode
• Archimago introduced I.1. 29
• Hypocrisy
• Connections to Catholicism I. 1. 35
• The creation of the false Una I.1.45
• Una and RCK separated
• RCK’s anger: 1.1.4 and 5
Una and RCK separated
• Allegory of the English Church
• Allegory of Truth and Holiness
Duessa (I.2.13 ff)
• What she signifies—some critical views
– Falsity
– Church of Rome
– Mary Queen of Scots
– Whore of Babylon
– Sans Foy—Saracen I.2.12
Duessa Episode
• Combat with Sans Foy (I.2.16)
• Fradubbio (I.2.31)
• Duessa Revealed (I.2.41)
Book II
• Guyon—Knight of Temperance
– Temperance as Moderation• OED: “practice or habit of restraining
oneself in provocation, passion, desire etc. Rational self-restraint
– Accompanied by Palmer--Reason
The Bower of Bliss
• Location in an artificial Garden (st. 42)– Enclosed, but how: st. 43
• Genius and the Self (st. 47)
• Sexual Temptation
• Acrasia in the Bower
Guyon
• Reactions– St. 55– St. 66
– Guidance from the Palmer (69)
Acrasia
• Her name means “intemperance”’ – Allegory: temperance conquers intemperance
• Witch with her lover (st. 72)– Temptress who turns men into beasts (Circe)
• Sensual temptation (st. 77)
• Loss of masculine strength (st. 80)
Bower destroyed
• Guyon’s destruction of the Bower 83
Possible contexts
• New World• Ireland• The Elizabethan court
itself
