G. Chaucer's view of "TRUTH"

“Truth” for Chaucer embodies the way human beings can live happily and peacefully, in harmony with god. He is presenting a world corrupted, which is not so different from the one we’re living now. As he said: "for greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty”, my interpretation is that greed equals hate, since wanting to have or to own more personal possessions, like material goods are, generates envy, therefore, hate.

Social climbing entails uncertainty, why? Is it because of money or a need of self-assurance? How can you socially climb? Through pretending being another person you aren't to get what you want? Well, things change so easily that if social status it’s important for you, one can become even more insecure when having a high social status. Furthermore, he mentions the existence god, and it means he is devoted to his image and how he feels that truth and god gives people an unbeatable balance and harmony in life which will enable them heaven.

I wonder...is that so?

Epic Poem : BEOWULF.

It certainly didn’t ring a bell when I heard about Epic Poems. Beowulf? “That’s a movie”, I thought!

After going through its chapters, I realized that an epic poem, like this one is, represents a historical time and place, unknown and mystical that becomes real thanks to all the heroic and brave characters it holds. Perhaps epic poems embodies a part of history that nobody has been able to fully discover, therefore, it may be so wisely written that contains a secret only few have been able or will discover. Maybe it’s just fictional, who knows, at least I’m certain that it is worth interpreting and analyzing it.

Literature

Learning has wonderful paths. One always discovers something new that makes exciting and adventurous the road of learning one has undertaken. We’ve read Todorov, a franco-bulgarian philosopher, in his pursuit of the meaning of literature and its use.

The following is a quotation written by this author:

“The texts that I was reading- personal narratives, memoirs, historical works, testimonies, reflections, letters, anonymous texts from folklore- did not have, like literary works, the status of fiction, because they directly described lived experience. However, like literary works, they let me discover unknown dimensions of the world, they moved me profoundly, and they made me think” ( Todorov 16- 17)

Personally, I thought literature was “sophisticated” writing. Now, after reading and becoming more knowledgeable about literature, I can state there’s no unique definition for it. It enables us to interpret, to have our own representation of the written text and spoken speech, provoking a reaction an impact. For instance, there’s no need for literary works to be fictional, since personal and real experiences such as: memoirs, testimonies among others, can make an impact on us, therefore, as long as they are valuable texts, they will equal literature.



Todorov, Tzvetan. “What is Literature for?” Project Muse 38.1(2007): 13-32

“Tzvetan Todorov.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 13 March 2009. 3 April 2009