THE
DARK AGES AND THE MIDDLE AGES
The saga of Western
literary criticism began from the Classical age of by great thinkers like Plato
and Aristotle and has reached contemporary theories like Post-colonial
Criticism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, New Criticism, Reader Response Criticism
etc. During those particular periods,
the literatures were equally influenced by linguistic, intellectual, religious
traditions of the time.
The early periods of
Western literature can be classified as follows: the very first Classical Age
spanned fro 1200 BCE to 455 CE and the period as marked with the literary
contributions of great Greek and Roman writers, playwrights, and philosophers
like Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, etc. Next came the Medieval Period
spanning approximately from 455 CE to 1485 CE. The Medieval period can be
roughly classified into the Dark Ages or Early Middle age and the Late or High
Medieval period. There is always debate above the boundaries of the periods.
Still it is estimated that Dark Ages spanned from 455 to 1066 CE and the Late
Medieval period spanned from the time of Norman conquest in Britain till 1480s.
After the dull middle ages came the era of Renaissance and Reformation which
lasted till 1660s.
During the Dark Ages there was
cultural, economic and literary deterioration in the Western Europe. It was
because of the fall of the Roman Empire. Comparing with the previous and later
periods of “light”, therefore, this age can be suitably called as the dark era.
The history written on this period is obscure and not enough. There was
scarcity of written records and artistic and cultural output compared to
earlier and later times. Nothing came as a considerable literary criticism There
was always this confusion on the boundaries of the period. Some historians
counted it from the fall of Roman empire till the European renaissance. But as
more accomplishments on literary and cultural spheres were recognized in the
later period of the Dark Ages, the period got divided into two as Dark Age and
the Middle Age. Majority of historians consider the whole of the Medieval
period as a transition between the Roman Times and the Renaissance.
BRIEF
HISTORY OF THE PERIOD
During the second half
of the 2nd Century the population the Roman empire dropped
considerably, a fall from about 65 million to 50 million. The reason for this
drop is estimated as the global cold front that swept the earth over the course
of 250 years. By the 4th Century, the fall of Rome was almost
complete as they lost control over a large area of the empire. Rome got
defeated in almost all the wars fought during this period and other stronger
groups conquered the parts of the empire. According to the historians, Rome’s
decline was complete in the year 476 AD. The new, barbaric conquerors of the
declined empire replaced the civilized culture of Rome. The Bulgarians were the
most powerful among the conquerors. During the middle of the 7th
Century, more Islamic invasions occurred in the territories of the past empire
and they exercised great influence over the populations. The temperature got
warm up and agriculture again began to flourish by the 8th Century
causing an increase in population and agricultural farms. As the life of the
people settled down, during the second half of the Century an increasing focus
on education was observed. During the 850s, Italy got split into the hands of
Franks and Muslim people. Charlemagne who led the Frankish army established
France and he helped spreading
Christianity over the west of Europe. 865 AD saw the Vikings invading and
establishing their Kingdom of England in Britain. By the beginning of the 10th
Century, Muslim nations invented abacus and brought the knowledge to the west. Christianity
grabbed a strong hold over Europe; the lands got settled into kingdoms; there
was a pace of peace without wars and by 1066 with the Norman conquest in
Britain, the Dark Ages is calculated to have came to an end.
In 1066, Norman French
armies conquered England under William I under whose rule the country of
England changed forever. In 1096, the Crusades started between Holy Roman
empire and Muslims over the Holy land. There were several crusades fought in
next 200 years. In 1215, King John of England signed the Magna Carte which
shifted the power from monarchy to people. In 1337, The Hundred years war began
between England and France. The Black Death spread terror in whole Europe in
1347 which killed about third of the population. In 1444, Johnnes Guttenberg
invented the printing press signaling the beginning of Renaissance. By 1453,
the Eastern Roman Empire or the Byzantium Empire got captured by Ottoman Empire
and Constantinople was defeated. Thus the Middle Ages came to an end giving way
for the lighted era of Renaissance.
RELIGIOUS
INFLUENCE
In the Classical age,
man was considered central of the Universe. Whole discussions of philosophy and
literature was based around man. There was no belief in a God or a religion and
this was termed Paganism. From the first century onwards, owing to the birth,
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, more focus was turned to study of
theology. Christianity spread wide through the preaching of Christ’s disciples.
The centre of discussion was shifted from man to God. Man began to be
considered as the fallen one. They began to believe in life after death. Big
academies run by known scholars slowly went out of the scene and knowledge and
scholarship began t concentrate on the spreading monasteries. More written
works came out on religion and theology. There were also mystical writings
getting popularized exploring and explaining the thresholds of mystical
experience. As, in due time, the importance of vernaculars increased, and the
latin versions got translated into vernaculars, common people also got the
chance of reading such theological and mystical works.
THOUGHTS:
Neo Platonism was a tradition of
philosophy practiced from the 3rd to 6th centuries which
was heavily influenced by the theories of Plato. Plotinus was the pioneer of
this philosophical tradition. Their ideas were more religious than Plato. They
overcame the gap between ideal and reality. Neo Platonism sought to describe
the “One God”. This tradition had great influence in the middle ages.
Scholastic philosophy
was a medieval school of philosophy or a method of learning theology emphasized
by the medieval academies and monasteries. Logic, metaphysics and semantics
were combined as a single discipline. Scholasticism wasmore applied in medieval
Christian theology.
LITERARY
FIGURES:
St. Augustine of Hippo (354- 430) was born to
a Christian mother and a Pagan father and so he was not baptized. During his
schooling he was attracted to Manichaeism, an early Christian philosophy of
extreme metaphysical and moral dualism, which believed that the evil is as
powerful as the good. He was also influenced by Neoplatonists as Plotinus. Once
he listened to the preaching of Bishop Ambrose of Milan and got baptized in
387. Being a prolific writer, he wrote many commentaries on Bible and polemics
against prominent heresies of the time including Manichaeism, magisterial
philosophies etc. His most influential “On Christian Teaching” is a treatise
dealing with theory of criticism and Biblical interpretation which is
considered a central text of medieval philosophy and aesthetics. During his
time Christianity was just beginning to establish and there was a lack of fixed
Scripture. He tried to authorize the interpretation of Scriptures.
Moses Maimonides (1135
– 1204) was a significant figure in Jewish hermeneutics. He insisted on an
allegorical interpretation of Torah like Augustine. He was among the handful of
Jewish and Islamic scholars who reintroduced the works of Aristotle in Europe.
He did extensive eclectic writings, wrote lengthy ambitious works on medicine,
theology, philosophy and commentaries on Jewish law.
Thomas Aquinas’s (1225
– 1274) “Summa Theologica” is a strong work on the faith and reason of
Platonism, Aristotlianism, Hellenism and Christian thought and alsonit marks a
high point of the Scholastic Philosophy and theology of the European Middle
Ages. Born in a n be family in central Italy, he did his schooling at a
Benedictine Monastery and later joined the Dominican friars who dedicated their
whole life for learning and preaching. He took a degree of doctor in theology
and till death spend his life teaching, preaching, writing and travelling whole
of Europe. He wrote more than 60 books on philosophy, theology, ethics,
exegesis and commentaries on various books of Bible and on Aristotle. He had
also written defenses of Christian faith against the Jews and Muslims of Spain.
Dante
Alighieri (1265- 1321) is considered the major Italian poet of the time and one
among the pioneers in vernacular literary writings. Dante’s Divine Comedy is
considered the greatest work in Italian and a masterpiece in World literature.
During the time, most works of literature where written only in Latin which
made it difficult for the laymen to read and understand. Dante was one among
the prominent writers who insisted on writing in vernaculars whose path was
followed bu later Italian writers like Petrarch and Boccaccio. Dante invented
the rhyme scheme terza-rima. His ideas on Hell and Heaven inspired a large body
of Western literature and he became an influence to later writers like Milton,
Chaucer, Tennyson, etc. Dante is recognized as the father of Italian language.
Petrarch
(1304- 1374) is called the father of Humanism and the father of Renaissance. He
is also considered one of the father of the Italian language. He wasa devoted
classical scholar and poet. His writings include the well known “Odes to Laura”
his love. Petrarch was the one who coined the name ‘Dark Ages’ for the Early
Middle Ages. For Petrarch, compared to the Classical Antiquity, the centuries
after the Roman fall was “dark”.
Giovanni
Boccaccio (1313 – 1375) is also considered the founding fathers of Renaisance.
He was a lawyer,a businessman but he loved most to write poems. His greates
work Deccameron claimed fame over 600 years and also influenced other poets
like Petrarch. He was also a humanist. The works of both Dante and Boccaccio
tried to bridging the gap between secular and religious writings.
Christine de Pizan
(1364 - 1430) was a female representation from the Italian French late medieval
period. She was a poet and a prose writer and her works were intended to give
practical advice for women. Forty one works came out of her pen and her
immediate need of writing was to support her family. She is considered an early
feminist by the scholars of the day. Her allegorical and didactic treatises
were autobiographical. In them were the reflections of her humanist and
scholastic knowledge tradition. She had the support of French and English royal
patrons. She had great writings mostly emphasized the importance of women in
society.
In British literature,
King Alfred the Great (849 – 899) was reputed as a learned and merciful man who
recognized the need of spreading knowledge among his kinsmen and he attempted
the translations of many works on different disciplines to old English. Chaucer
(1343 – 1400) who is considered the
father of English literature was the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages
and was also a known philosopher. His best known work is The Canterbury Tales. He was also a crucial figure who insisted on
the development of vernacular, the Middle English. Beowulf written between 975 and 1025 AD is the oldest surviving Old
English epic poem and most important work of Old English Literature. The author
of the work with 3182 alternating lines and describing the legend of Beowulf,
is anonymous.
The break up of
feudalism, emergence of national monarchies in France, England and Spain,
cultural development due to more secular education, rising importance of
reason…all these facts claimed an end to the dull middle ages. A newly spirited
age of light came into being what we call as Renaissance which looked back into
the age of Antiquity for inspiration.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nagarajan,
M. S, English Literary Criticism and
Theory: An Introduction: Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd, 2008.
Waugh,
Patricia. Literary Theory and Criticism:
United States: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Habib,
M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism
From Plato to Present. USA. Blackwell Publishing, 2005
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