Medieval literature

poetry

the nerrative poem

the ballad (=a collective form of art)

  • short dramatic stories
  • anonymous and trasmitted orally
  • no moral aim

Style

  • simple language
  • four-line stanzas
  • repetitions and refrains
  • ordinary and supernatural characters
  • mixture of dialogue and narration
  • story in verse
  • narrative elements: setting in time and place, description of characters and narrator

main exaple--> Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

  • a portrait of English medeival society
  • a General Prologue and 24 tales told by pilgrims from different social classes and professions
  • dynamic characterisation and subversion of the social hierarchy
  • main theme: the journey a spiritual experience and a social event
  • written in rhyming couplets