ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

LITERATURE QUESTIONS

MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Why was Acrene Wisse written in the vernacular language?
A
English was a more commonly used language in the Church.
B
The audience was likely unable to read French.
C
Women were more educated, so they knew more languages.
D
The audience was partially lay-women with little knowledge of Latin.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -There are a lot of versions of the text, but it is thought that it was first written for three sisters who lived in three separate anchor houses, so that they were close by one another, but never saw one another.

Detailed explanation-2: -It was written for these three sisters, at some point between 1225 and 1240. We do not know the identity of the author or who the three sisters were, but the language is a dialect of Middle English which comes from the West Midlands region.

Detailed explanation-3: -Ancrene Wisse (Ancrene Riwle) is the best example of the prose of the middle English period. It is a book written for a community of three Anchoresses living in a retreat near a church. This anonymous treatise offers a complete guide to, and a warm justification of the anchoress’ life.

Detailed explanation-4: -4r. Anchorites were ascetic monks who lived in alone or in small groups in enclosures attached to churches, never emerging. Anchoresses were women who sealed themselves away, their funerals being celebrated upon their enclosure, signifying their death to the world.

There is 1 question to complete.