Medieval Europe refers to the period when the Western Roman Empire perished in 476 AD, Europe entered the feudal society, and by the middle of 16- 17 AD, the feudal system was in transition to the capitalist system.
First, early medieval European literature.
During this period, Christianity gradually occupied a dominant position in the ideological and cultural fields of European feudal society. The theocratic rule of the church had a great influence on medieval culture, and all culture and art were stained with religious color. Church literature is unprecedentedly prosperous. The theme of church literature, like the plastic arts of the same period, is taken from the Bible. Its genre includes biblical stories, biographies of holy places, prayers, hymns and so on. Its main content is to promote the authority of God, asceticism and the idea of being born. The form, symbol and implied expression of dream stories often used in church literature also influenced the whole medieval European literature.
During this period, folk literature occupied an extremely important position. Although rejected and destroyed by the church, a large number of works have not been preserved, but the creation of folk literature has never stopped, and some works have been circulated through various channels to this day. Among them, the legend of heroes and heroic epic are the most important. Celtic heroic stories about Kuhulin and Finn, their legends about King Arthur and so on. There are German heroic epic Song of Hildebrandt, Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, Icelandic epic Eda and Sakya, and Finnish epic Ka Laivaara.
Second, European literature in the middle Middle Ages
1 1 century later, the feudal system in Europe developed to its peak, and cities as handicraft and commercial centers appeared. European literature in the prosperous period of feudal society also changed the situation of early depression and neglect. The literary achievements of this period can be divided into three categories:
1, heroic epics and folk songs
Heroic epics in this period are different from those in the early Middle Ages. They are often based on a historical event, mainly praising the hero's martial arts. Although it is a legend rather than a myth, the heroes in the poem are brave and good at fighting, loyal to the monarch and patriotic. The most famous heroic epics are Song of Roland in France, poema de mio cid in Spain, Song of Nibelungen in Germany and The Expedition of Igor by Gross.
In addition to long heroic epics, there are also short folk songs, among which the most representative works are Russian heroic songs and the English "Robin Hood Ballad".
2. Knight literature
The central theme of knight lyric poetry is to write knight love, which is what knight calls "elegant love". It promoted the development of Italian poetry before and after the Renaissance. Its form and skills also have a certain influence on the development of European poetry.
The center of Knight's narrative poems is in the north of France. The main content of this kind of works is to write the story of the knight's wandering adventure and struggle with various monsters, rare birds and animals for honor, religion and execution of your wife's orders. The source of theme can be divided into three systems, namely, ancient school, English school and Byzantine school. This kind of works take the experience of one or two protagonists as clues to organize long stories, and pay attention to artistic methods such as appearance and psychological description of characters, which laid the foundation for European novels.
3. Civic literature and civic comedy.
The characteristics of civic literature: directly based on real life, the main content is to expose the evil deeds and morality of feudal lords and monks, and some works praise the virtues and wisdom of the people; Its main techniques are realism and satire.
Rhyme is a short story written in the form of poetry, which is called a joke in some countries. It is a new literary form developed from folk songs. Based on real life, they mocked monks and nobles in a funny way and exposed the misdeeds of upper-class citizens. The representative works are The Donkey's Will in France and Father Amiser in Germany. There are also French "Farmer Doctor", "Farmers' Debate Paradise" and "Gong Si Dang of Amar" which write about farmers' life.
The representative work of satirical narrative poetry is the French Legend of Lena Fox, which is the most important work of medieval civic literature.
In the medieval civic literature, there is a novel with a unique style-The Legend of the Rose.
With the rise of urban folk drama, urban literary and artistic activities are also active. On the one hand, the folk drama of poetry gradually rises, on the other hand, the poetry church also regards drama as an art form to effectively publicize religion.
There are comedies, the most famous of which is The Lawyer Ballante.
Part two? Dante
I. Life and creation
Second, The Divine Comedy