The literature of the Medieval and the Renaissance is characterized by a certain peculiarity, depending on the factors that formed the literary development at that time: the traditions of oral folk art, which were available to all European nations, the cultural heritage of antiquity, Christian culture, knightly (clerical) and urban culture.

It is worth emphasizing that in the Middle Ages, religious thinking left a very deep imprint on literature, it also introduced allegory and elements of a symbolic perception of reality into the literary circulation. In the assortment of literature of the Middle Ages there were a huge number of genres with church origin, for example, cult drama, anthem, the lives of saints and more. In addition, the rudiments of historiography and the processing of biblical legends and motives are associated with clerical literature.

In the period from the 11th to the 14th century, medieval literature can be associated with folklore. But not too literally. A folk song or a fairy tale is non-personal, while the main feature of a literary text is intentional individuality, originality and a clear concreteness. Medieval works of that time have a certain ambivalence, that is, some texts are close to literary work in the modern sense, while others, such as songs about acts, are closer to folklore.

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