Core Concepts: 1.31-2.04

Medieval Literature

• Written in Middle Ages( 500-1500 CE)
• No specific author, secular texts

Allegory 

• "Extended metaphor" - represent things in real life
• Characters: too stupid to live

Everyman: Main character represents all humansDante's Inferno (Dante): 

• epic poem
• allegory
• Dante: everyman
• 3 circles of Hell, 7 circles in Purgatory, 9 circles of Paradise

Archetypal Criticism

• Based on archetypes. Have to "get" them.

Mythological Criticism 

• Something that is repeated with the same meaning

Structure of these is a bunch of circles - see handout

Romance (top): hero ends successfully

Tragedy (right): hero ends up stuck somewhere

Irony (bottom): things bad, possibly getting better

Comedy (left): getting better, ends well
Novel: prose, complex, long
Novella: prose, longer than short story but shorter than novel (Heart of Darkness)