Final Study Guide

Terms and dates:

1337-1453

1348
1362
1381

Great Schism

Babylonian Captivity

Philosophical Realism

Nominalism

Affective Piety (Incarnational Theology)

Mysticicsm

Via Negativa, Via Positiva, Via Activa

Fabliaux

Medieval Estates (for men and women)

Estates Satire

Saint’s Life

Feast of Corpus Christ

Easter Troper

Corpus Christi Play (Cycle)

Mystery Play

Morality Play

Semi-liturgical and Liturgical drama

St. Francis

Dream Vision

Three stages of Romance and Dream Vision

Romance

Stages of Mystical Journey

Prologue, General Prologue

Gothic vs. Romanesque Art

Star of Solomon

Allegory of the Three Temptations

Pageant Wagon

Bob and Wheel

St. Scholastica

Margery’s Husband’s Problem

Margery’s public sign of her blessing

Ancrene Wisse

Pearl Poet
Alliterative Revival
Harrowing of Hell in Piers

Allegory of field full of folk

Belling the Cat

Allegorical implications of the General Prologue

Dramatic Principle and its three levels



Questions to consider

In what ways is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight a typical medieval romance?

What is meant by the inner and outer plots (and corresponding themes) of SGGK?

Compare and contrast the styles of Miller versus Franklin?

Discuss the political differences between the Pearl Poet and Chaucer.

What are the positive and negative implications of “courtly love” in Troilus Book III and in the tale of Pyramus and Thibe.

Discuss the range of portraits in the General Prologue. How do they seem to be grouped and what is mean by idealized and satirized characters?Are the portraits in any sense allegorical?

The opening few lines of the General Prologue set up the Venus to Virgin (sin to salvation) theme we discussed in class. What does that mean?

What is meant by High Gothic style and what text or texts represent that style well?

Discuss the use of allegory in Piers Plowman?

Discuss the dialogue in Hell about Christ’s redepmtion.

What is the meant by the mystical journey? 

Medieval drama evolves from church ceremony, we have said. How would you describe it?

In what ways might the farce of the Second Shepherds’ Play be considered moral?

What is the basic structure of Everyman?What is the connection to the Brethren of Deventer?How is spirit echoed in Chaucer’s Parson?

Really big questions:

Discuss the woman and writer and the woman as written in the literature we have read since the mid-term.

What is the effect of late medieval sensibility toward the body (affective piety and incarnational theology) and idealization (Nominalism and its rejection of idealizing the abstractions of Philosophical Realism) in late medieval literature (Chaucer and the mystery plays primarily)?

In what ways does Chaucer fit and not fit amongst the other literature that we have read?

Compare and contrast SGGK and Troilus as medieval romances.

Using Piers Plowman and SGGK compare the structure and function of dream vision and romance.

 

 

Texts that might be quoted

SGGK

Cockayne, Rhymer

Troilus, Book III

Women’s Lit

Piers Plowman

Piramus and Tisbe

General Prologue

Franklin, Miller, Wife of Bath Prologues and Tales

Second Shepherds’ Play

Everyman