Sunday, November 15, 2015

The Different Works Of A Medieval Author

By Mattie Knight


Medieval literature has been extremely influential to the literature the world has today. For those who do not know, literature of this kind came from the continent of Europe and developed sometime in the middle ages which was one thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire. A medieval author was extremely respected during that age as writers were often seen as very intellectual individuals who possessed much knowledge.

Of course the first one would be the philosophical or theological works since these types of works were the most popular types of works during that time. Now the church was the single most influential body that existed in the entire region. Now because of this, it was very common for famous authors to incorporate a lot of theological themes into their books.

Now just to give a background, some of the notable authors of this genre would be Pete Abelard and the very famous Saint Thomas Aquinas. In particular, Saint Thomas Aquinas was one of the most well known theological authors of that time since he was a very wise and knowledgeable man who was well versed in the scriptures. He was also known to be a very good writer as well which is why his books are still being used today and also followed by many religious orders.

Of course it was not only the theological works that were popular but also the secular ones as well. Sir John Mandeville was an example of an author who wrote in the secular genre with his book the Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The themes of most of these works focused on fiction and some focused on history too.

Now many people during that time also enjoyed reading allegories that were written by the brilliant poets who lived during the era. Now one would probably know about the very famous William Shakespeare but there was someone who was also as important and as skilled as Shakespeare during that time who went by the name of Geoffrey Chaucer. This man was known to be one of the most influential poets of that time with works like Book of the Duchess.

Now the works of the women were actually put into a separate genre since women were not regarded as equal to men so it was rare to have a woman author during that time. Of course in order for their works to be recognized, they rode along with the most popular type of genre which was theological works. They used this medium so that they could spread their ideas.

One of the most notable of all female authors is none other than Julian of Norwich. She was actually a mystic that had a near death experience which allowed her to have visions which became the basis for some of her works like the Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love. She was actually the first woman to have a book published in England.

So basically, those are some of the things that one should know about the medieval literature and its authors. As one can see, works from this time period were very influential to the modern day literature. Many modern day works were actually influenced by works from this time period.




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