HUHC 011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Geoffrey Chaucer, Everyman
15 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Dante, chaucer: would have been fluent in latin but instead they wrote in the vernacular of the time; Dante wrote in italian and chaucer wrote in (middle) english. Realize how insane this is, it was almost unheard of that stuff would have been written in a tongue which was understandable and accessible to *everyone* (those who were literate) Natio(cid:374)alis(cid:373), if (cid:455)ou (cid:449)rite i(cid:374) (cid:455)our o(cid:449)(cid:374) la(cid:374)guage it(cid:859)s (cid:373)ore a(cid:272)(cid:272)essi(cid:271)le to (cid:455)our own people. Writing not in latin is dissent in and of itself. Making greek and roman antiquity amenable to a christian: Virgil is, while laudable because of his writing, fallible, because he(cid:859)s paga(cid:374) There are no names and places because these things detract from our ability to put ourselves in his shoes. We(cid:859)re all lost i(cid:374) this (cid:449)orld (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h is a dark pla(cid:272)e. The (cid:449)oods, it(cid:859)s meant to be dark, difficult to navigate. Dante wants the reader to be as lost as he is.
