Colegio Villa Maria La Planicie
English Department
European Literature
Fifth Secondary
In memory of
Nevenka Gjivanovic
Friend of friends,
Teacher of teachers.
You gave yourself to us
Every moment.
Warmth, joy, concern.
An open hand always ready
To caress, to share—
Discretely.
Your ready laugh raised our spirits
When the road was rough.
Your brilliant wit
Sharpened our minds.
Wisdom clad in humility.
Fire in the classroom—
Your light shines on the path we shall follow
To meet you.
Colegio Villa María La Planicie
Fifth Secondary
European Literature
Introduction to the course
This course will give you a quick view of the outstanding characteristics of each major cultural period in Europe, starting with Greek civilization. You will also become familiar with some of their most representative works of Literature, which reflect the society and ideas of their times. It will also give you an opportunity to strengthen your ability to understand, analyze, critique, compare and contrast, and explain these texts.
In order to perform successfully in this course, it is important that you come prepared to class, i.e., that you read the texts reflectively at least once before analyzing them in class. It is also your responsibility to solve any doubts you may have regarding vocabulary, ahead of time.
Another indispensable skill is note-taking. You must be permanently active during class, taking notes of what is being commented. This will help you enormously for your tests, and it will also prepare you for all the learning years you have ahead of you, at university and in training courses during your professional career. Avoid sitting in class passively simply letting time go by.
Finally, control how often you raise your hand to participate. Make sure you do it frequently.
Review of Basic Concepts
Words have two meanings:
Denotation It is the dictionary meaning.
Connotation It is the special meaning that an author gives to word/s in a particular moment. It is not obvious. It is implied.
Levels of interpretation
Literal It is given by the denotation. It is necessary. It is what the texts says.
Figurative It is given by the connotation of the words. It makes literature beautiful. It is there, hidden, waiting to be discovered. It is the hidden meaning that the author is trying to give to his work.
Figures of speech
These are necessary for figurative language.
Simile It is a comparison that uses the comparative words AS or LIKE. She is as tall as a giraffe. She is like a giraffe.
Metaphor It is a comparison without the comparative words. There´s the giraffe. (a tall person).
Personification Human qualities are given to objects. The wind spoke to me.
Hyperbole It is an obvious over-exaggeration. He gave me three million kisses.
Symbol It is a word that stands for something else. This meaning is usually accepted by a large group of people. Heart symbolizes love. Dove symbolizes peace.
Goal of the Course:
The goal of the course is to get students acquainted with European Literature through the reading and analysis of representative masterpieces of each of the different periods and literary movements that cover from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. Students will have the opportunity to read prose and poetry; they will analyze both within the social and cultural background in which they were produced. Students will also evaluate critically the importance of Literature as a manifestation of the human spirit.
Content:
1. Contrast between the Judaeo-Christian tradition and Greek Classical culture.
2. Introduction to the Middle Ages and Dante`s Divine Comedy.
3. Dante’s Inferno, Chants I, II and V.
4. Renaissance in Italy and England: Sonnets by Francesco Petrarca and William Shakespeare.
5. Neoclassicism in France: Fables by Jean de la Fontaine.
6. English Romanticism: Poetry by Robert Burns, William Blake, William Wordsworth.
7. Victorian Period: Poetry by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth B. Browning and Mathew Arnold.
8. Realism in Russia: Short stories by Feodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy.
9. Naturalism in France: Short stories by Guy de Maupassant.
10. Symbolism in France: Poetry by Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud.
11. 20th Century Contemporary European Narrative: Short stories by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and August Strindberg.
Cultural Background of the Literature of the Western World: the contrast between the Greco-Roman Classical culture and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition.
These two cultures are the main roots of Western civilization. Here is a brief look at both.
Greece and Rome
These cultures are basically similar. Roman art was greatly influenced by the Greeks. Even though the Greek civilization began in very ancient times, there are two important Greek periods. During the Hellenic one (approx... 700-400 B.C.), the city of Athens was supreme. Then the Hellenistic period took place (approx. 400-100 B.C.). It was more cosmopolitan. Civilization was influenced by other city states.
The Greeks, contrary to the Hebrews or the Christians, lived only for this world. They only worried about the present. They did not care about a future life. Their values were purely natural. They had no ideas regarding a personal responsibility towards neither a Creator, nor a personal relationship with a Creator. An afterlife was something undefined. Eternity was never a real factor in their life.
The Greeks only sought personal perfection: the harmonious development of mind and body.
The intellect or REASON was above anything else. It was a source of man’s dignity. Through reason man could achieve “balance” and harmony and find every answer you needed. But there are fallacies in this mentality because the Greeks expected too much from reason. For example, Socrates and Plato believed that an adequate knowledge of what goodness meant led to goodness itself. Knowledge and reason were the only steps to morality, which is an exaggeration.
Literature was intellectual rather than emotional. Writers tried to make better men of their audience. They presented universal ideas or types to teach a lesson, which means literature was didactic.
The greatest Greek representatives of these areas of culture are as follows:
Dramatists: Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides. (Drama was invented in Greece. Sophocles is known as the Father of Tragedy. He wrote Oedipus Rex, Antigone, etc.)
Great thinkers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.
Poets: Pindarus, who wrote odes. Homer, who wrote epic poems (The Odyssey).
Historians: Herodotus, Thucydides.
Sculptors: Phidias.
Regarding ethics and moral, the Greeks were Stoics in the way they looked at the world. They lived a comfortable life, but faced misfortune with severity. They thought and believed in Fate or Destiny. Your fate was determined when you were born and you could not change it. And as far as the objectives of Art and Literature were concerned, moderation was a basic criterion because balance and harmony were the foundations of Greek life.
The Judaeo-Christian Tradition
While the Greeks were flourishing in Europe, another people in Asia, to the south of Greece, were developing their ancient culture. These were the Jews. They were in Palestine (on the East coast of the Mediterranean Sea), maintaining their THEOCENTRIC society. God was the center of their life. They were faithful to ONE GOD, who was their judge and protector. They were also waiting for the Messiah.
The Jews and the Greeks were completely different. The most important difference was the belief the Jews had in a POWERFUL, always PRESENT GOD. This idea ruled their lives. The Hebrews of the Pre-Christian times felt no need for human philosophy, because their God had revealed all truths in the Scriptures. They had a DIVINE CODE (law) that was given to Moses. They were the “Chosen People” and lived permanently aware of God.
When the Romans conquered the Jews, they were allowed some religious freedom because for the Jews religion was part of their national heritage. The coming of Christ changed the Hebrew Tradition. Christ commanded his apostles to carry his message. So now it was NOT a question of national heritage but of missionary work to be carried out. Then the Romans persecuted the Christians until Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire around 400 A.D.
The new religion was different from its original form:
1. Universal. It was for all men, not only for Jews.
2. Love, the basic idea, united all people, including traditional enemies. You no longer feared, but loved your God.
3. Salvation was a reality, no longer a promise.
4. Christianity taught people with clarity about ETERNITY. The old Hebrew tradition had not been clear about this. The new religion said that life was a preparation for eternal life.
5. Suffering was not only seen as a punishment for sins, but also as a trial and an opportunity to share with Christ and to exercise one’s priestly nature.
All these ideas were carried to Europe as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, which had a magnificent communications system.
Next Periods
The Middle Ages
Medieval times developed at different moments in different places approximately from the 9th Century to the 13th Century.
Everything was oriented to God in this period. Society was THEOCENTRIC. People were willing to ignore everything which did not lead to God. Intelligence, art, everything was directed to GOD. During these DARK AGES there were no inventions and no evident material progress. Not all agree with the expression Dark Ages or its explanation.
The Early Renaissance (14th – 16th Century)
Scholars started to think that the ways of the Middle Ages were not the only road to God and that they could broaden their horizons without losing sight of God. They started to discover and review the works of pagan Classical writers, but they still preserved the God oriented outlook of the Christian culture. Nature, art and material things were good for they were provided by God. SALVATION is still the goal. The degree of love for God is more important than the path used or chosen to live this life and reach God.
The Late Renaissance (16th Century) and the Enlightenment (18th Century) 1660-1789
The Late Renaissance
Gradually, thinkers grew away from the Christian tradition. At first, Humanism appeared in a Christian context during the Renaissance, as a celebration of man, the coronation of Creation, made in God’s image, and sharing in God´s creative power. There was an extreme preoccupation of the world of Nature. Galileo (1564-1642) belonged to this period.
Then thinkers continued to apply logic, a discipline of thinking, and made new discoveries in Science. But they also reached new ideas, probably based on false premises and intellectual pride. There is a break with the God-oriented vision of the world. Thinkers thought that an ENLIGHTENED or more educated minority had to enlighten the rest of humanity.
The Enlightenment is the age of science, invention, discoveries. Art and philosophy reached back to Greece and Rome. The Carpe Diem (live for today) philosophy or mentality was common.
This period is called the Neoclassical Period (17th-1/2 of 18th Century) of Art. FORM and UNITY were important in Neoclassical writing. The artists turned to Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) for models and inspiration. Art was mostly copying ancient art. The artist did not use his imagination.
There was a strong pagan influence. Philosophers believed that scientific achievements would be a path to social progress. Through REASON, man could understand MAN and the world. Revelation was not needed.
Literature appealed to the mind, to reason, and not to feelings. What is rational is good. This preoccupation about the natural world, form and Reason is known as the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. During the 18th Century Aristotle became like a God to the Neoclassical artists, the Poetics. This is the time of the breaking up or divisions of churches.
Some influential thinkers of this period were Montaigne (1533-1592), Descartes (1596-1650) and Voltaire (1694-1778) in France, Locke and Hume in Britain, and Jefferson, Washington, and Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and Paine in the United States.
Romanticism (2nd half of the 18th C. – 1st half of the 19th C.)
There was a revolt against intellectualism, formalism and rules of Classicism. It was a movement of emotional and personal tendencies and its representatives were opposed to rules, were spontaneous, imaginative and lyrical (musical). They sought freedom through breaking away from the old rules and models. They turned with illusion to the Middle Ages. Nature was supreme—almost a god. Love was what mattered. They were individualistic and non-conformists.
Realism
They present life and social reality as it is. There was a philosophical revolt against the IMAGINATIVE and EMOTIONAL outlook of the Romantics. What was good and bad, what was beautiful and ugly was depicted exactly as it was perceived. Man was thought to be free. Realists were interested in problems of motivation, of why people do things.
Naturalism
It is a movement of extreme Realism. Nothing that can not be verified by the senses is valid. Man is considered a PUPPET moved by heredity or environment. Emphasis is placed on what is ugly, abnormal, and morbid and deformed. New forms appeared in Literature. There was experimentation both in style and content.
The Medieval Period
As the new Christian ideas spread over Europe and other events took place, history changed from the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations to the next stage, the Middle Ages, which developed between the 9th and 13th centuries.
The Medieval Period was the great age of Christianity. God was the center. Painting, music, architecture, sculpture, etc. was theocentric. Life in the world was a preparation for an after life. Faith was very important. They gave importance to religion. The turmoil of the period did not allow for discoveries or inventions. That is why The Dark Ages is another name for this period. Also, WAR was important for medieval man. God was first for him, then his king (loyalty) and then his lady.
Medieval Literature
Most of the literature of this period in existence today comes mainly from the 12th Century, when they started to write it down. Before that time Literature was mostly oral, and it is this oral Literature, transmitted from generation to generation, that became the foundation of Medieval Western Literature.
Literature was mainly
1. Narrative in genre
2. Anonymous
3. Based on legends
One of the most important forms was the Epic. The Medieval epics of all nationalities have certain characteristics:
1. Long narrative
2. Impersonal and objective point of view
3. Celebration of the past
4. Presence of a hero of great strength, bravery, loyalty and willingness to self-sacrifice
5. Solemn and exalted tone
These epics were part of the oral tradition that was later written down. Although they described the life of an earlier pagan time, they often reflected the influence of Christianity. In Christian Medieval society, the view of man was different to that of the more primitive people described in the Epics. His energies were devoted to maintaining his temporal life and working for his eternal salvation. These beliefs became part of Literature, and although the Epics are extremely fatalistic because of the pagan influence, they also reveal Christian influence. FAITH was a unifying force, a social and personal reality.