Exploring the Effect of Society and Culture on English Literature A study of Medieval English Literature and Medieval Society

Abstract

This is a descriptive study that aims at studying the medieval literature and demonstrating the impact of society and culture of middle ages on medieval literature. The Middle Ages designate the time span from the collapse of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance and Reformation, and the adjective "medieval" refers to whatever was made, written, or thought during the Middle Ages. In literary terms, the period can be divided into the Anglo-Saxon period (450-1066), the Anglo-Norman period (1066- c. 1200), and the period of Middle English literature (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries). This extensive period witnessed many developments in the history of England: the establishment of Norman and Angevin dynasties, the internal struggle between the king, nobles and the people, and the numerous wars both at home and abroad. This period also witnessed general movements such as the rise of religious orders; the blossoming of the spirit of chivalry and romance bringing new sympathy for the women and the poor; the crusades and the widening of the European outlook which gradually expanded into the rebirth of the intellect known as Renaissance. All those events made a powerful social and cultural impact leading to enormous historical, social, and linguistic change in the Middle Ages and Middle English literature, thus the research attempts to explore and highlight those impacts and changes in this paper; of which the most important is perhaps the gradual entry of Middle English vernacular of East Midland replacing the West Saxon old English paving the way towards a standard English to become the received standard English of today.