REMI MOHANDAS
LCL051517
DARK
AGES AND MIDDLE AGES
The
dark ages is the early part of the medieval period of the European history .
the period gave importance’s to the culture and economic deterioration that
occurred after the fall of the Rome. The dark age as the name signify was an
period of darkness and ignorance and the
age also refer to the five hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Historians mentions this period of history as dark because of the depleting
customs and practices that prevailed after the fall of the Roman Empire.
The
dark ages beings with the defeat of the Roman Emperor Augustulus in 476 AD. It
is said that dark ages being around 450 AD and persistent till 1000 AD. After
the decline of Roman Empire European had to face many political and economic
difficulties and the European society was under the authority of the feudal.
The struggle between the feudal and the barbarians shattered the life of the
ordinary life of the people. The feudalistic pressure became a reason for the
decline of the church. The church was blamed for the spiritual darkness of the dark age.
During
the 450 AD and 1000 AD monasticism a new
movement was developed . After the formation of the Benediction order at Monte
Cassino in 529 AD, monasticism spreader throughout the medieval church ,
the monastery replaced the functions of
the church. The monks and the priest saved the treasure of the classical
literature that included the Holy Scriptures and the patristic writing from the
ruins of the Roman Empire.
The
term dark ages was coined by Italian Scholar and historian Petrach who was
influenced by the greatness of ancient
Roman Empire . He named the term dark ages to the express the disapproval
towards the Latin literature. The term is now used to represent the period
following the fall of Roman Empire. Commerce and industry decline in the early
middle ages and the land was in the hand of the few, disease were
widespread. Trade was limited . middle
ages were divvied by two factors the
heritages of classical thoughts and the varying relation of the Christian
theology in heritage. An attempt of Christiana philosophy to come in terms with classical Greek and
Roman heritage continued.
Old
English or the Anglo Saxon period extended from the invasion of the England by
the German tribe in the first half of the fifth century under the leadership of
William the Conqueror. Culture and learning was achieved in various monasteries
. The poetry written in vernacular Anglo
Saxon is also know as Old English which
included Beowulf the greatest of the
German epic poem. The hidden life of the Anglo Saxon were expressed in their
literature . the poetry was with the spirit of adventure , love of the sea,
battle, and love of home.
Beowulf
The
first and major epic poem form the old English period. It narrates about the
deeds and death of Beowulf . the poem is written in continental Germanic theme.
The story was brought in the form of songs about the hero from England by the
Angles. An eighth century poet rewrote the poem in the present form. The
original text is written in west Saxon dialect. Beowulf defeat the monster
Grendel . The Germanic tale becomes a Christian allegory. The language of the poem is simple ,
expressive and precision.
St Augustine
St
Augustine was indeed a major person of the dark age. He was a Christian and was
influenced by the tradition of Roman Catholic and Protestant thoughts . the
famous works are City of God and Confessions. St Augustine expounded the
theology in City of God in which he views
human history as the unfolding of divine plan. He mentions that God can
restore the natural state of goodness in which man was created . The concept of two cities had influenced
during the middle ages, the struggle between church and the state. He agrees
with the argument of Plato for banishing poets on moral grounds.
The view on poetry with truth is different for Augustine , according to him
painting and plays were nessararily false.
St
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest scholar and philosopher of the dark ages. He was highly influenced by
Aristotle and also by Augustine , Cicero , Boethius , Maimonides. Aquinas is
well-known for his two major works. The first one is Summa contra Gentiles
which was written between 1259 and 1264. The purpose of that book was to defend
– or argue – the truth of Christianity
against gentiles who did not accept the authority of the
scriptures. Aquinas died at the age of 49 giving to the western world a legacy
of theological and philosophical work greater than that of Plato and Aristotle
The
factor that contributed for the making of middle ages were the evolving
traditions of Christianity , the social and political patterns of the Germanic
tribes who were the roman empire , the legacy of classical world and contact with Islamic civilization .
the most important factor in the
development of medieval was Christianity . Christianity was to tolerate as predetermined
in as a series of edicts even before the fall of the Roma in 410. In 381
Christianity was recognized as the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Christianity contained a large number of sects with disparate belief and practices
often embroiled in dispute. One of the
Christian thinker was Jarorm who translated Bible from its original language
into Latin . Latin was the languages for
law and scholarship in the middle ages. The Germanic tribe invaded the Empire
and retained the Latin as the language wherever they settled. The growth of
vernacular language and literature from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
entailed a dissolution of Latin but writes such as Boccaccio and Petrarch were
“still affected by the heritage of the Latin middle ages” and influenced of
medieval literature persisted through the great movement of the modern period
such as humanism , the Renaissances and
the reformations.
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
Boccaccio
wanted to be know as a Scholar and he is widely know for his Decameron
a collection of a hundred stories told by the ten characters against the
background of the bubonic plagues that overtook Italy in 1348. Boccaccio wrote
allegorical poetry and romances with the influences of Chaucer and Shakespeare.
He pressed the cause of Italian literature. The most important work in literary
criticism was Genealogia Deorum Gentilium
, on classical mythology in fifteen books. In the first thirteen books he
attempts to make compile, arrange and offers allegorical interpretations of
classical mythology.
Middle ages.
The
middle ages is from the fifth to the fifteenth century. The ages began with the
fall of roman Empire and merge with renaissance and the Age of Discovery .
Middle ages is period of three division of western history , Antiquity
Medieval period and Modern period. The
influence of Augustine in particular with the view of human will and needs for
divine graces persisted through the
later middle ages. Stream of literary criticism of the early medieval period resurrected the later middle ages. The
traditions of grammatical criticism and of the early medieval period. The most
prominent streams of thought of the early middle ages, neo Platonism.
The
latter middle ages witnessed the growth of a new intellectual movement ,
various forms of humanism and sclorticism which arose from the structure and
divisions of knowledge that had been
grown in the later medieval institutions of learning mainly the cathedral
schools.
The middle ages began in 1050
witnessed many progress and economic revival. The feudal system achieved a
relatively stable formation. Middle Ages, the period in European
history from the collapse of Roman civilization in the 5th century to the period of the Renaissance The term and
its conventional meaning were introduced by Italian humanists with invidious
intent; the humanists were engaged in a revival of
Classical learning and culture, and the notion of a thousand-year period of
darkness and ignorance separating them from the ancient Greek and Roman world
served to highlight the humanists’ own work and ideals. In a sense, the
humanists invented the Middle Ages in order to distinguish themselves from it.
The Middle Ages nonetheless provided the foundation for the transformations of
the humanists’ own Renaissance. During the twelfth century a cultural and
economic revival took place; many historians trace the origins of the Renaissance to this time. The balance of economic power
slowly began to shift from the region of the eastern Mediterranean to western
Europe. The Gothic style developed in art and architecture. Towns began to
flourish, travel and communication became faster, safer, and easier, and
merchant classes began to develop. Agricultural developments were one reason
for these developments; during the 12th century the cultivation of beans made a
balanced diet available to all social classes for the first time in history.
The population therefore rapidly expanded, a factor that eventually led to the
breakup of the old feudal structures. The Middle Ages, or Medieval Times, in
Europe was a long period of history from 500 AD to 1500 AD. The breakup of
feudal structures, the strengthening of city-states in Italy, and the emergence
of national monarchies in Spain, France, and England, as well as such cultural
developments as the rise of secular education, culminated in the birth of a
self-consciously new age with a new spirit, one that looked all the way back to
Classical learning for its inspiration and that came to be known as the
Renaissance
Conclusion
The fall of Roman empire and
Renaissances is referred as middle ages. The early part of the middle ages is
called as the dark ages. Petrarces and St Augustine were the major figures in
the dark ages. Christianity was the prominent in that period. The
balances of economic power began to shift from the religion to the western
Europe there was development in art and
literature. The population began to increases . the break down of feudal structure became a way for the strengthening of states.
Cultural development and rise of education. A new age with a new spirit.
.Bibliography
Habeeb, M. A.R. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato the Present. USA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2005
Abrams, M. H A Glossary
of Literary Criticism Cemgage leraning
2012.
Nagarajan M S English literary Criticism and Theory . An
introductory History. Orinent Blackswan . 2006
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