Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Hello everyone.
Welcome back to English Literature 101 for English
students at the Islamic University of Gaza. This
is again an introductory course into the history
of English literature. The course again aims at
understanding the development of English
literature and literary texts in their historical
context. I said last time that we are going to
take this course mainly as a literature course,
but again to study the historical background of
the literary movements, literary texts, and
literary figures. We need also to study not only
how history and historical events influence
literature, but also how literature sometimes
influences history and people in general. Last
time we spoke about Old English. Old English, the
time when England was being made. England was in
the process of making itself the England we know
now. Originally, there were people from all around
Europe. We spoke about the natives, the Vikings.
We spoke about the French. We spoke about the
Germans. All these tribes, in a way or another,
thought it would be probably safer in the island
rather than in the continent, in Europe itself.
But later on, there were again more fighting and
more wars inside the island itself. Now early old
English is mainly oral tradition. The poetry
remained oral for a long time. People depended on
their memory. Many of the poems were originally
meant to be sung somewhere so people memorized
them. And in order to make a text memorable, easy
to remember, and easy to memorize, there were
certain features that we spoke about last time. We
said they tried to be narrative in a way where the
poem mainly tells a story. Because stories,
everybody loves stories. We like stories. If you
need to memorize something, to immortalize
something, to make it forever, to make it
everywhere, every time, you put it in the form of
a story. And then the themes. The themes were
taken from real life, related to the people of
that time. The themes touch the lives, the
aspects of everybody's life there and their
circumstances and everything. That's why the
themes were, remember, battles, wars, fighting,
struggle. And there were also personal themes,
like themes of happiness, themes of sadness, and
et cetera. We spoke also about religious themes.
And some of you noticed that the majority of texts
from Old English are religious texts. And that
could be telling in the sense that we ask a
question. Were people purely religious at that
time? Is it because people were? Or is there
another explanation? Sometimes the poets or the
author was religious, and sometimes the church
chose a religious form rather than a religious
form. OK. Okay, can you say that again and speak
up?
Exactly. So who could read and write at that time?
The monks, the people of the church. The people of
the church were probably the only people who could
read and write, which means only those people
wrote the poems down, and perhaps there was an act
of selection, which means there could have been
some kind of censorship, where the monk would
choose the poem he likes, usually a poem with a
religious theme rather than probably a secular theme
or something else. And then finally, we said Old
English in so many ways was a musical language,
especially when they wrote poetry. There was the
caesura, the alliteration, the music, the rhythm
of poetry, everything was meant to make the poem
easy to remember and easy to memorize. Now, as we
move from Old English to Middle English, we speak
about a society that is developing, a society that
is in the making. We speak about the English
identity that is being made. Originally, people
again came from different parts of Europe, but now
they are in a part, in an area called England. And
many people started to seek this English identity.
The Englishness of English started to be developed
at that time. People wanted to feel some kind of
harmony. They wanted to feel that they belonged to
this place. They wanted to see common interests
and common issues among themselves. And when we
speak about Middle English literature, we speak
about the most famous literary figure of that
time. The man who is considered the father of
English literature, or English poetry in
particular. His name is Chaucer. His name is
Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer, by so many
people, is considered the father of English
literature. When we speak about early middle
English, this is the man who was working on some
kind of literature to reflect the English identity
that is being made, the society that is developing
probably from all aspects. I will Remember last
time when we spoke about Old English, we spoke
about the features of the period, the authors, the
literature. And then we discussed the literature.
Now I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to
give you samples from extracts from poems by
Chaucer. And from these samples, from the poetry
we have, we need to try to guess and to deduce the
features of not only literature and poetry and
language, but also of life. The most important
literary work of that time, again by Chaucer, is
The Canterbury Tales. Canterbury Tales is a long
poem of 24 stories by Chaucer. Now, before I say
much here, let's go directly to the text. And
again, the aim is to see whether the text reflects
the time, the age, or not, and in what sense. Look
at this, number one. Remember what we call two
lines of verse that rhyme? What we call them? A
couplet. A couplet. Thank you. Can you read
someone? Please.
Philosopher.
In his coffer. Thank you. Someone else? Please.
But although he was a philosopher, nevertheless,
he had only a little gold in his pocket. Thank you
very much, please. But although he was a
philosopher, nevertheless, he had only a little
gold in his pocket. Okay, one final reading,
please. But although he was a philosopher, he had
only a little gold in his pocket. Nevertheless,
but although he was a philosopher, Nevertheless,
he had only a little gold in his coffer. Again,
this is the modern English writing. But if you
look at your book, you will be able to read the
Middle English text. You will at least be able to
recognize some of the words. And the words that
you can't read can easily be guessed from the
context there. So if everyone goes to the book,
Okay.
Page 1313.
Go to page 13, everyone. This is Chaucer, page 12
and page 13. Look at the original English text.
Okay, look at the text here, page 13. Can you try
to read the Middle English? This is also, this is
not like typical Middle English, but this is
close. Remember Old English? We couldn't read Old
English. Because in so many ways, it's a totally
different language. But Middle English is the
start of what we call the English language that we
have now. It's not exactly what the language we
have now, but this is the beginning. Can you read
the English text one?
In his coffer.
So how many words are familiar to you? Probably
most of them. Even the words that look weird,
because again there were no standards for
spelling. And even grammar wasn't still fixed
then, at that time. But the spelling, look at the
spelling. This is the word had. And they would be
throwing the E letter here and there. OK? Now, the
modern English makes it clearer for us. But
although he was a philosopher, nevertheless, he
had only a little gold in his coffer. What do you
notice about this? What does the text communicate
with you? Look at the couplet. Do you notice
anything? This is poetry. This is Middle English.
What is the theme? What is the form? Is there
anything you can notice here that makes you, hmm?
Interesting what the poet is doing here. Yes? So
it's
talking about a philosopher. And the poet is
telling us, the text is telling us that he had a
little gold in his coffer, in his drawer, probably
safe, where people hide money. Valuables. Very
good. So what does it mean? Do you notice anything
here? Yes? That he wasn't seeking and searching
for money. He was searching for knowledge and
being a philosopher. Very good. What is a
philosopher? It's generally a person of knowledge,
a person who seeks knowledge. In a way, this guy
is a philosopher. How much gold does he have? How
much money does he have? A little. A little gold.
OK. What else? Please. I think the person cares
more about giving people information more than
getting money. Is this in the text, or are you
guessing? I'm guessing. OK, you're guessing that a
philosopher is supposed to be dedicated to people,
to knowledge, to his society, the community, or
her, of course, if we're talking about a female
philosopher. What else do you notice? What else
can you tell from the text?
What difference can
you notice? What is the major difference between
this and Old English? In Old English, it includes
a caesura. Okay, there's no caesura here, right?
This is Europe started to disappear physically,
but it also still existed. We'll talk about this
later on. It is now no longer marked by the space.
It could be marked by a comma or semicolon or full
stop in the middle of the line or something.
Please.
Okay, so now we have a new theme. People remember 198 00:
question is, is Chaucer here making fun? Is he
being ironic, you know, being ironic? In a way,
he's saying that this is a philosopher. He only
has a little gold in his coffer. If he has a
coffer where he puts gold, probably the author
here is trying to make fun of the philosopher. The
philosopher is not doing his job of being a
philosopher to take care of knowledge, educate
people, seek knowledge. He's more interested in
collecting money than anything. So the society
that was, again, fighting among itself now has
different themes, different topics. But now people
started to be, remember, Beowulf. Beowulf, what
did he do? He's fighting the enemy. He fought the
enemy. He sacrificed himself, not only for his
people, but for other peoples. But now we have the
scientist, the knight, the nun. The philosopher is
seeking his own personal interest. This is the
theme of selfishness. The society started to have
its own vices. When we are threatened, when we are
during war, people come closer to each other. We
are united, but when people
settle down, feel safe, what happens? Exactly, we
become selfish and selfish. What do you notice
also about the form?
There's no caesura here. What else? Is there any
source of music? Where's the rhyme? Oh, yeah. The
rhyme is the last sound in a line of verse, the
last sound or couple of sounds. That's the rhyme.
Creates music. But although he was a philosopher,
there was a little money, there's a little gold in
his coffer. So philosopher and coffer, they rhyme.
You know what rhyme is? The last sound or the last
couple of sounds in a line of verse. So again, new
themes, new forms. We have rhyme, and we have no
caesura here, but a new theme is starting to show
up. Let's see another example and come back to the
second one here. OK. Again, if you look at the
book, page 12, there's this tale, The Nun's Tale.
The Nun's Tale. We move from talking about the
philosopher to talking about, you know, the nun is
like the monk, the female monk. The nun is a woman
who dedicates herself to the church, to God. She
vows not to marry, not to have kids, just
everything is dedicated to God, love of God.
That's the nun. There's the monk, and then there
is the nun. OK? Look at the English, the Middle
English text. Can someone try to read, please? Can
you read it? Look at the words. Can you find
familiar words? Are there familiar words? They
have the English letters that we have now. So they
look strange, weird. So can you read this? Don't
look below. Look at the original text. Can you
read? Please. No, here.
And she was all consistent and tender heart.
Tender heart. Very good. Good reading. Whether you
understand every single word or not, but still you
can read this. The words look different because of
the lack of spelling rules. Someone else, read the
original text. Please, raise your voice. Who in
her way of smiling was very ineffective and
modest, and all was Sentiment and tender. This is
not the original text. The original text, if you
read the original text again, it's going to get
easier and easier. So this is smiling. Strange how
they're spelling it, but you're going to recognize
it. Go again for the original text.
Very good. Let's now go back to the modern,
modernized text. Who here is a reference to? The
nun. In The Nun's Tale. Who in her way of smiling
was very unaffected and modest. And all was
sentiment and tender heart.
Again, let's comment on the text. Take one minute.
Look at the text. What do you notice? What is new?
The poet saying, what is he communicating with us?
What is the theme? What do you notice about the
language, about the form, the music? Who are the
characters? Okay. And the nun is? She's the main
character. The nun is a woman or a man? A woman, a
woman who is supposed to dedicate her life to the
church, to God. Now, remember the old English
texts? We discussed, thank you, all men. We
discussed probably 10 texts. And almost all of
them were about heroes, about someone who hears
the voice of God, someone who loses his job,
someone who fights dragons and monsters. But now,
for the first time, we have a woman in a text. And
the woman is not only a character. It's not only
mentioned in passing. She's the main character.
There's a tale in her name. Look at the title. The
Nun's Tale. So we deduce that, we come to the
conclusion that, in Middle English, women started
to appear, to take space and to take room. They
became main characters in the text. What else is
there in the couplet? Please.
OK.
So she smiles. She influences people. And you're
talking about crossing the lines of being a nun.
Where can you see that? It says unaffected. Then
in the other line, it all was simple. OK. In the
first line, who in her way of smiling was
unaffected and modest. Modest, like she's
dedicated. Because this is what generally, listen,
at that time, and even now in so many cultures,
women, the most important thing about women is
modesty. It's their modesty. And modesty is
usually defined by man. OK? Which is something
probably we'll talk about later on. But usually
women live under the rules of men for ages and
ages. In so many ways, this is not good. And
that's why women start to struggle to take their
rights, their equal rights. So the nun is doing a
role to dedicate herself to God and religion. And
the first line, yes, she's unaffected and modest.
She's playing. She's doing her job. But in the
second line, there is a word that we need to
notice here.
She was all sentiment. What's sentiment?
Sentiment's emotions of love. emotions of feelings
of love and tender heart. In other ways, again
similar to the story of the philosopher, this is a
woman, a nun who is supposed to be dedicated her
life to God, but instead she cares more about her
love and emotions than anything else. Again, This
is Chaucer trying to criticize the society using
what we call, again, irony. He says something, but
he means something else. He says, this philosopher
has a little gold. And then we go, oh my god.
Still, this is a lot of money. And see this nun?
She's all about sentiment and tender heart. Oh. So
the nun is also in the strictest sense of the
word, is not a conventional nun. But what is new
here is the fact that women started to appear to
take her to be part of this. Although generally,
generally at the beginning they were just objects
of admiration. They were just objects for men to
admire. My question is here. Can you see this nun?
Can you see her as someone rejecting the norms of
the society, someone defying, resisting the roles
imposed upon her? My question again, here we have
a nun who's supposed to be a nun, but she's
breaking the rules of being a nun. Is breaking the
rules here? Part of the woman doing something,
what is she doing? Possibly. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
and sentiment. Again, generally, you're not
supposed to fall in love with life, with things,
with people, like men-women relationships. But
this woman is breaking the rules. Does it say
something? When the philosopher broke the rules,
we said he's a hypocrite, a fake philosopher,
because he is interested in collecting money. And
now, is this a fake nun, or is this woman doing
something important?
Yeah, about being all about sentiment and love.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure whether there were, you
know, like, I'm not sure someone would force her,
like, physically to be a nun. But sometimes
society leads you to a particular conclusion. But
it's not clear. But thank you very much for asking
this question. Maybe, so we deduce, if this woman,
if this nun is not doing her job as a nun, maybe
in the beginning she was forced. Or she was put in
a position where she had no choice. But my
question again, what does it tell? if this woman
is not following the rules of being a nun, the
rules of the church. Is she a hypocrite or is she?
She's a woman following her heart. Personality,
like to challenge that given.
Thank you very much. In a way or another, this is
someone, a person who's trying to have a voice for
women. Probably the voice is not that loud and
clear, but this is someone resisting the rules of
the society, even resisting the rules of the
church. And for her, being a man is not what the
church decides. It's what her tender heart
decides. Please. Choose to be a nun to not go
under a man, to not be forced by a man. I think
she would be a nun and hide her feelings and show
that she's strict rather than being under a man.
In general, that could be. That is possible. But
it's not here in the text. In the text, we have a
woman who defies the rules of being a nun, breaks
the rules in a way to change the image of women,
to give women a place. We'll talk about this later
on as we move talking about English literature.
Another example here, it's from The Knight's Tale.
You know the knight? Beowulf, in a way, was a
knight,
just added. There's no need to add it here in the
translation. I'd like to go for this version. And
the four at the king's court, my brother. What
happens at the king's court when a knight is
telling a story? Traditionally, people are
competing to show that they are strong. To be
heroes, to defend. But what happens at the king's
court? Each man for himself.
Each man for himself, there is no other. No other
person I care about except myself. Selfishness.
Again, we have a knight who is not a knight. Why?
Because knights chose us, trying again to
communicate with us the idea that knights now
don't belong in a modern society in a way. They
belong to the past, to stories, to the epics of
the past. In modern society, people are settling
down more and more. There are no, like there were
wars. When you speak about Middle English, you
speak about there's the 100-year war between
England and France that lasted for over 110 years.
There were people dying every day. But in so many
ways, people started to settle down and live
relatively in peace. So a knight is no longer a
knight, like a nun is no longer a knight. And a
philosopher is no longer a philosopher. This is a
society. This is a poet that is exposing his
society. He's talking about the vices, the
problems, but presenting a realistic image about
the society. Because yes, we want to defend
others. Yes, we want to fight for others. Yes, we
love others. But we usually don't forget
ourselves. It's good to be selfless. But if you
are totally selfless, that's not realistic.
Because you need to gain something yourself. So
the heroic image of the old English. That the
image that we see in Beowulf is turning into a
realistic image in Chosar, where people are
presented as people with weaknesses, with vices,
not as pure, complete people. Notice also here we
have the rhyme. Again, what is the rhyme? The last
sound
or couple of sounds in a line of verse. Do these
lines rhyme? Let's hear brother, other. Modest and
hard probably imperfect rhyme. And a final example
here is again from Chaucer, the second part. What
is this world? What do men ask for? Now with his
love, now in his cold grave, alone without any
companionship.
If I give you this text without telling you this
is from over a thousand years ago or less, You're
not going to know. Because this question of, what
is this life? What is this world? What do men,
what do people ask for? What do you want in life?
These are questions that are modern, questions of
today, of the 21st century. But again, this is
something that Joshua asked a long, long time ago,
that poets asked thousands of years ago and
hundreds of years ago. And this is, again, the
beauty of poetry. Poetry crosses time and crosses
race and all obstacles to talk to us, to address
us. Now, and again, this is one reason why Chaucer
is the father of English literature. He was a fine
poet, an excellent poet, who captured the heart,
the mind of English, of England, the English
people in a society that was being modernized,
being made. Notice again, In the original text,
there is also a rhyme, but we lose it in the
translation. What is this world? What do men ask
for? Meaning, no matter what you do. Remember the
question about what it means to be a human being?
What it means to be a human being in Beowulf, the
same question is now still being asked. What does
it mean to be a human being? Because no matter how
powerful, how strong, no matter how much money,
how much gold you collect, what is this world?
What do men ask for? What? Love, money, happiness?
At the end of the day? Now with his love. Now in
his old cold grave. A really terrifying image when
someone feels like not only in a grave, in a cold
grave, see the now, now, the repetition of now.
This, by the way, this creates a caesura. The
question, the pause, the caesura. Now with his
love, now with a sad tone here, alone without any
companionship.
Say again.
Thank you very much. And this is Chaucer. Chaucer
was not only about fighting battles and wars, he
was bringing us a broad array of themes and
issues. Now, can we talk about the features, the
characteristics of English literature, of English
poetry mainly in Middle English? Can you tell?
What do you notice? What new things do we have
here? Listen, so now we have the text and we try
to understand the society, how the text reflects
life. One, and raise your voice. Number one, new
themes such as love, money, hypocrisy,
change. Please. Oh, yes, important themes related
to women. They started as minor, minimal. They
started as objects of admiration. But later on,
every now and then, we find very strong women who
challenge and defy, like your friend here
suggested, to try to change the image people have
about women. Please. The language is softer. The
language is closer to the language of today. Well,
it's sometimes not recognizable because of the
different spelling. But upon several readings, we
can make sense. We can make sense of many of this.
Yes? No caesura? No, there's no caesura, the
physical gap. But still, it disappeared in a way
or another. But sometimes we have it in
punctuation marks. Yes?
Yes. Remember, at the beginning it was all about
heroism, all about praise, all about elegy,
praising the dead, praising God, praising the
heroes. But now we have irony, new techniques,
irony, using irony to say something and to mean it
because people became more and more intelligent.
Please.
Okay, so the idealistic image we had of pure
heroes, of complete perfect people started to
change into realistic pictures The last point to
conclude Chaucer begins the Canterbury Tales,
which, again, consists of 24 stories. He
originally intended them to be 120, but he only
wrote 24 stories. And he started the whole poem
with the description of spring. Spring, new life,
symbolizing regeneration, rebirth, in a way he was
saying that this is England, this is the spring of
England, this is the beginning for England. We
plant the seeds and the spring begins in April.
Now when we say April in English literature, April
has been made famous mainly because of Chaucer,
and then later on in the 20th century by T.S.
Eliot. T.S. Eliot begins his most famous poem, The
Waste Land, by mentioning April. Do you know what
he says? T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land.
One mark if you know the first verse of the first
line in The Waste Land. T.S. Eliot is the greatest
20th century poet. He's American and British. His
most famous poem is The Waste Land. What is the
first line? One mark.
One mark if you know. He says,
April is the
cruelest month. April is the cruelest month.
Remember, in so many ways, when he says April is
the cruelest month, he's reminding us of Chaucer.
He's connecting his poem from Chaucer, the father,
the most important figure of early English poetry.
Do you know why? Can you tell why? Why did T.S.
Eliot begin his poem, The Wasteland, with, April
is the cruelest month, contradicting Chaucer, who
praised April as the month of spring and life and
generation? I'll let you think of this question.
I'll stop here. And we meet next time, inshallah.
And we'll be talking about other texts from Middle
English. Do you have any question?