ENGL 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Petrarch, National Epic, Main Plot
31 May 2016
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Hero is conventionally seen as ideal embodying ideal principles of society. Beowulf : a way for society to scrutinize itself. Epic = - celebration of a country. Way for a country to look at itself. Epic : - usually starts in the middle of things (in medias res) Opens as/with an invocation to the muses. Virgil was main model for what the epic should be (bc latin, not greek, was the language of education) Virgil : to be a hero, you have to be self-denying ; you have to give up desires. Romances are like epics, but less focused. Spenser is trying to write a heroic poem where love is positive. A woman"s quest for husband p. 403 allegory. Arthur has a dream where he sees faerie queen (403) Story of faerie queen = arthur finding the queen. Elizabeth seen as a source of all great deeds/power.
