Medieval Estates and Order - Making and Breaking Rules offers insights into the complex and contested social structure of medieval Britain through texts ranging from monastic rules to records of rebellion. This cluster will be especially helpful to readers of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, allowing us to understand Chaucer in the context of the late-medieval genre of estates satire.
We are introduced to the "Old Woman" from the Romance of the Rose, whom Chaucer reinvented as the Wife of Bath, and to contemporary accounts of the Uprising of 1381, which lies in the background of the Nun's Priest Tale.
The selections relating to women in and outside of religious orders add to our knowledge of the lives of medieval women such as Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, while those dealing with the image of the Christian warrior will enrich readings of texts ranging from The Dream of the Rood to Piers Plowman.
Students studying later literary periods will have an opportunity to contrast the images of holiness, hypocrisy, and knighthood found here with those in Spenser's Faerie Queene, and to compare a medieval rebellion with the seventeenth-century English Revolution.
We are introduced to the "Old Woman" from the Romance of the Rose, whom Chaucer reinvented as the Wife of Bath, and to contemporary accounts of the Uprising of 1381, which lies in the background of the Nun's Priest Tale.
The selections relating to women in and outside of religious orders add to our knowledge of the lives of medieval women such as Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, while those dealing with the image of the Christian warrior will enrich readings of texts ranging from The Dream of the Rood to Piers Plowman.
Students studying later literary periods will have an opportunity to contrast the images of holiness, hypocrisy, and knighthood found here with those in Spenser's Faerie Queene, and to compare a medieval rebellion with the seventeenth-century English Revolution.
Estates Satire: A medieval genre common among French poets in which the speaker lists various occupations among the three estates of feudalism (nobles, peasants, and clergy) and depicts them in a manner that shows how short they fall from the ideal of that occupation. In the late medieval period, the genre expanded to discuss the failings of bourgeois individuals as well. The genre was not unknown in England. John Gower's Vox Clamantis and Confessio Amantis have passages similar to those in continental estates satire. Jill Mann suggests in her famous book, Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire, that the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales is itself an example of this genre. The genre is also called medieval estates satire.
Satire: An attack on or criticism of any stupidity or vice in the form of scathing humor, or a critique of what the author sees as dangerous religious, political, moral, or social standards. Satire became an especially popular technique used during the Enlightenment, in which it was believed that an artist could correct folly by using art as a mirror to reflect society. When people viewed the satire and saw their faults magnified in a distorted reflection, they could see how ridiculous their behavior was and then correct that tendency in themselves. The tradition of satire continues today. Popular cartoons such as The Simpsons and televised comedies like The Daily Show make use of it in modern media. Conventionally, formal satire involves a direct, first-person-address, either to the audience or to a listener mentioned within the work. An example of formal satire is Alexander Pope's Moral Essays. Indirect satire conventionally employs the form of a fictional narrative--such as Byron's Don Juan or Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and similar tools are almost always used in satire. Horatian satire tends to focus lightly on laughter and ridicule, but it maintains a playful tone. Generally, the tone is sympathetic and good humored, somewhat tolerant of imperfection and folly even while expressing amusement at it. The name comes from the Roman poet Horace (65 BCE-8 CE), who preferred to ridicule human folly in general rather than condemn specific persons. In contrast, Juvenalian satire also uses withering invective, insults, and a slashing attack. The name comes from the Roman poet Juvenal (60-140 CE), who frequently employed the device, but the label is applied to British writers such as Swift and Pope as well.
Social Satire: Satire aimed specifically at the general foibles of society rather than an attack on an individual.
Satire: An attack on or criticism of any stupidity or vice in the form of scathing humor, or a critique of what the author sees as dangerous religious, political, moral, or social standards. Satire became an especially popular technique used during the Enlightenment, in which it was believed that an artist could correct folly by using art as a mirror to reflect society. When people viewed the satire and saw their faults magnified in a distorted reflection, they could see how ridiculous their behavior was and then correct that tendency in themselves. The tradition of satire continues today. Popular cartoons such as The Simpsons and televised comedies like The Daily Show make use of it in modern media. Conventionally, formal satire involves a direct, first-person-address, either to the audience or to a listener mentioned within the work. An example of formal satire is Alexander Pope's Moral Essays. Indirect satire conventionally employs the form of a fictional narrative--such as Byron's Don Juan or Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and similar tools are almost always used in satire. Horatian satire tends to focus lightly on laughter and ridicule, but it maintains a playful tone. Generally, the tone is sympathetic and good humored, somewhat tolerant of imperfection and folly even while expressing amusement at it. The name comes from the Roman poet Horace (65 BCE-8 CE), who preferred to ridicule human folly in general rather than condemn specific persons. In contrast, Juvenalian satire also uses withering invective, insults, and a slashing attack. The name comes from the Roman poet Juvenal (60-140 CE), who frequently employed the device, but the label is applied to British writers such as Swift and Pope as well.
Social Satire: Satire aimed specifically at the general foibles of society rather than an attack on an individual.
The First Crusade: Sanctifying War offers a range of contemporary perspectives on an event which profoundly affected the history of Christian Europe and the Middle East. The texts gathered here present the image of Jerusalem and the idea of pilgrimage in medieval thought, providing crucial contexts for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Langland's Piers Plowman, and The Book of Margery Kempe.
This section also offers a valuable background to later imaginings of the pilgrim and Jerusalem by writers ranging from Edmund Spenser to William Blake. The harsh depiction of the realities of medieval warfare included here provide an instructive contrast to the conventions of chivalric literature and Arthurian romance, and the accounts of Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan and Ibn Al-Athir offer an alternative view of the Crusade from the standpoint of the Jewish and Islamic peoples.
Robert the Monk, from Jerusalem History
Chronicle of Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan
Ibn Al-Athir, from The Perfect History
This section also offers a valuable background to later imaginings of the pilgrim and Jerusalem by writers ranging from Edmund Spenser to William Blake. The harsh depiction of the realities of medieval warfare included here provide an instructive contrast to the conventions of chivalric literature and Arthurian romance, and the accounts of Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan and Ibn Al-Athir offer an alternative view of the Crusade from the standpoint of the Jewish and Islamic peoples.
Robert the Monk, from Jerusalem History
Chronicle of Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan
Ibn Al-Athir, from The Perfect History