Examine the contribution of vernacular literature
Answers
Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".
In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin. In this context, vernacular literature appeared during the Middle Ages at different periods in the various countries; the earliest European vernacular literatures are Irish literature, Welsh literature, Anglo-Saxon literature and Gothic literature[citation needed].
The Italian poet Dante Alighieri, in his De vulgari eloquentia, was possibly the first European writer to argue cogently for the promotion of literature in the vernacular.[1][2] Important early vernacular works include Dante's Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (both in Italian), John Barbour's The Brus (in Scots), Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales(in Middle English) and Jacob van Maerlant's Spieghel Historiael (in Middle Dutch). Indeed, Dante's work actually contributed towards the creation of the Italian language.