European Literary History Seminars
For the texts that are discussed in the tutorials (see weekly assignments) – draw up a very
short biography of the author. Who was he or she? When did he/she live? Language?
Significance?
Also, answer questions in the document about each text. And
make a short note about each text for yourself. When was it written? In which original language?
What is the plot, who are the main characters? What is the meaning of the text for the
a particular theme? (we suggest no more than 100-150 words per text).
+ Notes from seminar group (slides on canvas?)
It’s good to go through all phases in history again like the Enlightenment etc.
SAM schrift ges.
Seminar notes
Biography of the author
Note about the text
Answers to the questions from course manual
SEMINAR 1| Heroes and Heroines:
Adventure + The Cult of the Holy Virgin Mary and Courtly Love
What do we need to have a narrative? → a character, a plot
Chivalric narratives
● Chivalric ideals transposed in literary form
● Medieval narratives of rhyme
● Reflection of the knightly world-view
● Use of vernacular language (NOT latin)
● The hero embodies the ideal virtues of the good knight
Chivalric romances
● Pre-courtly Carolingian cycles, or the ‘Matter of France’
● Medieval (courtly) romances
1000 was a turning point between pre-courtly and courtly.
Pre Courtly (< 1000) Carolingian cycle, charlemagne
1. Allegiance to king, god and country and honour
2. Blood feuds/revenge motifs, displays of bravery, strength, war, brutal
3. Women as ‘prize’
,Courtly (>1000) Oriental, classical and Arthurian romances
1. Supernatural power (wizard Merlin, King Arthur)
2. Refined, self control, civilized behaviour, virtue
3. A vaguer historical background
4. A more sophisticated setting
5. Courtly love: Respect and defend women
Courtly literature travestied
● Courtly love
● Flights of fancy
● Heroic deeds
● The figure of the knight
● Knightly codes of conduct
● Language use
● Shattering of the illusion
The image of the Virgin before and after the year 1000
- Before 1000 = Stately, sublime mother figure
- After 1000 = More human, mediator figure, model: courtly service, virtue
1. Dante: The Divine Comedy (‘Inferno’ and ‘Paradiso’)
- The author is Dante Alighieri
- 1265 – 1321
- Original language = Italian
- Divine Comedy Is widely considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages and
the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
- Dante wrote in a vernacular language which made his texts way more accessible
to the ‘normal people’ than Latin did. Latin was only accessible to the most
educated readers. This was of big significance because multiple other writers followed
Dante’s example > a big step in literature.
- Dante was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy, and his depictions
of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art.
- The Divine Comedy has 3 parts (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso)
- It was completed in 1320
- It is written in the form of a Poem
- The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval
world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped
establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written (also in most present-day
Italian-market editions), as the standardized Italian language.
, The narrative describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise (or Heaven),
while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God.
In Dante's work, Virgil is presented as human reason and Beatrice is presented as divine
knowledge. Written in the first person, the poem tells of Dante's journey through the three
realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after
Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory;
Beatrice was a Florentine woman he had met in childhood and admired from afar
in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition. Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman,
guides him through Heaven.
● Imagined journey
● Unusual treatment of the ‘Virgin’ theme
a. Dante follows in the footsteps of the classical tradition. In canto I-IV from ‘Inferno’, he
encounters his guide, the poet Virgil. In Virgil’s own epic The Aeneid, the hero also descends
into an underworld (see the excerpt in theme 3 in the reader). Note the differences and similarities.
Does Dante’s journey qualify as a classic epic? How would you characterize Dante’s adherence
to Virgil, as imitator as aemulatio?
similarities: love for Italy, patriotism
differences: the form and language, new-courtly, christianity
b. At the beginning of Canto 33, there are three antitheses. What is an antithesis? Explain their
meaning here.
An antithesis is a figure of speech which is used in order to make a contrast in a text. Involving a
seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical
structure. It is used to make the reader better understand the point the author it trying to make.
For example: alive and death. Salt and sugar.
The three antitheses we find in the beginning of Canto 33:
1. daughter of your son
2. fly without wings
3. us and mortals
c. Describe in your own words the final scene of the Paradiso. How does the story end?
Dante goes through different spheres of heaven in Paradiso. He went to sphere of the moon,
of mercury, of venus, of the sun, of mars, and of saturn. In all these sphere’s are people who
have done something good or had been judged for something bad they did not do. The
sphere’s are different places in heaven. Then Dante comes in the sphere called the fixed
stars; this is Dante’s almost final destination and he is able to look back on the earth. The
last sphere of Dante’s journey is the Primum Mobile. He sees 9 orders of angels surrounding
