THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD: LITERATURE AND THE AGE

Irma Nydia Villanueva-Rivera

Irma Nydia Villanueva Rivera

"Renaissance," French for "rebirth," perfectly describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries.

RENAISSANCE

• The Renaissance is one of the most interesting and disputed periods of European history. Many scholars see it as a unique time with characteristics all its own.

• The approach here is that the Renaissance began in Italy about 1350 and in the rest of Europe after 1450 and that it lasted until about 1620.

• Began in Italy• Later spread north to Germany and England

During the era known by this name, Europe emerged from the economic stagnation of the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial growth. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social, scientific, and political thought turned in new directions.

• Interested in Greek & Roman culture (“the classics”)

• Use of perspective in paintings• Believed in Humanism• Used critical method of study

Gutenberg

When Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1445, he forever changed the lives of people in Europe and, eventually, all over the world.

Previously, bookmaking entailed copying all the words and illustrations by hand. Often the copying had been done onto parchment, animal skin that had been scraped until it was clean, smooth, and thin. The labor that went into creating them made each book very expensive. Because Gutenberg's press could produce books quickly and with relatively little effort, bookmaking became much less expensive, allowing more people to buy reading material.

The Demand for Books Grows

In the Middle Ages, books had been costly and education rare; only the clergy had been regular readers and owners of books. Most books had been written in Latin, considered the language of scholarship. In the Renaissance, the educated middle classes, who could now afford books, demanded works in their own languages.

Furthermore, readers wanted a greater variety of books. Almanacs, travel books, chivalry romances, and poetry were all published at this time.

Simultaneously, a means of printing music was also invented, making music available at a reasonable cost. As the demand for books grew, the book trade began to flourish throughout Europe, and industries related to it, such as papermaking, thrived as well. The result of all of this was a more literate populace and a stronger economy.

Humanism

• Books also helped to spread awareness of a new philosophy that emerged when Renaissance scholars known as humanists returned to the works of ancient writers.

• Previously, during the Middle Ages, scholars had been guided by the teachings of the church, and people had concerned themselves with actions leading to heavenly rewards. The writings of ancient, pagan Greece and Rome, called the "classics," had been greatly ignored. To study the classics, humanists learned to read Greek and ancient Latin, and they sought out manuscripts that had lain undisturbed for nearly 2,000 years.

• The humanists rediscovered writings on scientific matters, government, rhetoric, philosophy, and art. They were influenced by the knowledge of these ancient civilizations and by the emphasis placed on man, his intellect, and his life on Earth.

• The recovery of ancient manuscripts showed the humanists how the Greeks and Romans employed mathematics to give structure to their art. The relationship between these two studies is most evident in architecture, where numerical ratios were used in building design.

Divine Proportion

• During the Renaissance, Phi served as the "hermetic" structure on which great masterpieces were composed. Renowned artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci made use of it for they knew of its appealing qualities.

• Therefore, the Divine Proportion presents itself in the very physical nature of Creation. It is seen as the beauty and organization within

the cosmos. It is the harmony and glue that holds the unity of the universe.

Anthropocentrism

Considering human beings as the most significant entity of

the universe.

Francesco Petrarch

• Petrarch's work represents the transition from a medieval tradition, beholden to Dante, to a modern literature. This is mainly because of his introduction of Italian as the language of his poetry.

• He is the creator of the Italian sonnet• Outside Italy, the Petrarchan sonnet was

practiced in Spain by Garcilaso de la Vega (1501-1536) and Juan Boscán (1492-1542).

Shakespearean Sonnet

Spenserian Sonnet

Sonnet 75 from Amoretti

Dante

Many authors produced influential literary works during the Renaissance. Dante was the writer whose works some historians date as marking the beginning of the Renaissance, and he is called the father of the Renaissance. He was an Italian writer who wrote in the vernacular, or common language, so his works gained popularity among ordinary people as well as scholars.

His most famous work is The Divine Comedy, which describes in vivid detail the author’s journey through hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio) and heaven (Paradiso). Although called a “comedy”, the book is anything but funny. This is because Dante was using the classical meaning of “comedy”, in which a story is not necessarily humorous, but ends happily and according to the divine will of God. In The Divine Comedy, Dante blends Greek philosophy with Christian theology, in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas. Dante’s guide through Hell is Virgil, and the greatest sinners present in Hell are Judas Iscariot (Jesus’ betrayer) and Brutus (Caesar’s betrayer).

VERNACULAR LITERATURE

• Vernacular literatures flourished in the Renaissance even though humanists preferred Latin. In 1400 standard English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and other vernaculars did not exist. People spoke and sometimes wrote a variety of regional dialects with haphazard spelling and multiple vocabularies. Nevertheless, thanks to the adoption of the vernacular by some governments, the printing press, and the creation of literary masterpieces, significant progress toward elegant and standard forms of modern vernaculars occurred.

The Tudors

• The five sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty are among the most well-known figures in Royal history.

• During this period, England developed into one of the leading European colonial powers, with men such as Sir Walter Raleigh taking part in the conquest of the New World.

• Culturally and socially, the Tudor period saw many changes. The Tudor court played a prominent part in the cultural Renaissance taking place in Europe, nurturing all-round individuals such as William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and Cardinal Wolsey.

Elizabeth I: the last Tudor monarch

• Her 45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history.

• She was very well-educated (fluent in six languages), and had inherited intelligence.

• Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of discovery, particularly to the Americas. These expeditions prepared England for an age of colonization and trade expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognized by establishing the East India Company in 1600.

Royal Library, Windsor Castle, holograph on the last page of text in a copy of a French Psalter published in Paris ca. 1520. Elizabeth inscribed these lines when she presented the psalter to a servant or friend at some time before November 17, 1558.

No crooked leg, no bleared eye, No part deformed out of kind, Nor yet so ugly half can be As is the inward, suspicious mind.

Your loving mistress, Elizabeth

1. out of kind, so as to be unnatural2. inward, secret

William Shakespeare

The Importance of Shakespeare• In a world where the quality of the art form called "writing"

is so often said to be rapidly diminishing, it is important for scholars of English literature to retain some studies of the true classics, such as Shakespeare. A well-rounded education logically must have a strong foundation in both modern and classical literature, the latter of which an in-depth study of Shakespearean works would more than satisfy. Not only was Shakespeare so well accomplished in his writing skills that he has become an undeniably significant point in the history of literature, but a majority of his works were written on such basic human themes that they will endure for all time and must not be allowed to slip into the tragic oblivion of old age.

• William Shakespeare has become an important landmark in English literature. To see why this is so crucial for students to study, let us consider an analogy. One must be familiar with the conditions and circumstances of colonial America and pre-Revolutionary times if s/he is to understand the rationale behind many of the provisions of the Constitution, a two-hundred-year-old document still alive and highly significant today.

• In much the same way, one must be familiar with the early days of English literature in order to comprehend the foundation beneath much of more modern literature’s basis. Shakespeare’s modern influence is still seen clearly in many ways. For example, the success of Shakespeare’s works helped to set the precedent for the evolution of modern dramas and plays. He is also credited with being one of the first writers to use any modern prose in his writings; in fact, the growth of the popularity of prose in Shakespeare’s time is clearly shown as he used prose progressively more throughout his career.

• Furthermore, there can be no doubt that Shakespeare was a master of the artistry of the English language. He wrote with such fluidity of thought, word, rhythm, and sound that the work is presented in a complex manner, but is not unintelligible, even for the inexperienced reader.

• There can therefore be no doubt that substantial knowledge of the works of William Shakespeare is necessary for any education of English literature to be considered complete and well rounded.

Hamlet

• First performance at the end of 15th century, ~ timeline, death of Elizabeth I and accession of James VI and I. First printing 1603. One of the more accessible Renaissance/early modern period texts. One constant theme of the English renaissance is the development of personal character and fame. Hamlet is portrayed as being uncertain as to whether he is the prince of the title, or student. Throughout the play Hamlet is presented with choices, of belief, of action, of love, of justice and of conscience. The play is famous for its soliloquies, where Hamlet presents the audience privately with his perceived choices. The results of his limited choices culminate in the tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?Deny thy father and refuse thy name.Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my loveAnd I'll no longer be a Capulet.“

- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ACT II Scene 2

Romeo and Juliet

In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, a long feud between the Montague and Capulet families disrupts the city of Verona and causes tragic results for Romeo and Juliet. Revenge, love, and a secret marriage

force the young star-crossed lovers to grow up quickly and fate causes them to commit suicide.

The Golden Age of Spanish Literature

The first known novel of chivalry, Amadis of Gaul, was printed in Zaragoza in 1508 and served as a model for the novels of chivalry that became (16th cent.) the most popular genre in Spain, together with the anonymous ballads (romances) that were sung and recited everywhere. Meanwhile the spirit of the Renaissance had been invading Spanish letters, and Spain

had also become a dominant European power. In the reign of Emperor Charles V, the first picaresque novel, was published (1554).

The latter part of the 16th cent. and most of the 17th cent. made up the great era of Spanish literature, known as the Golden Age. At the start of this period the poet Garcilaso de la Vega, stimulated by the work of Juan Boscán, succeeded in mastering the meter and essence of Italian verse and in acclimating it to the Spanish spirit, thus revolutionizing Spanish poetry. The chief prose monument of the Golden Age, and one of the masterpieces of world literature, is the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha

• Published in two volumes a decade apart, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. In one such list, Don Quixote was cited as the "best literary work ever written".

Don Quixote: Invention of the Modern Novel

• Before Cervantes' time, books weren't written like they are now. The idea of a long, fictional narrative was basically non-existent back then. Books were mainly written as historical narratives, philosophical treatises, scientific works, plays, or epic poems. The closest thing to a "novel" would have been something like the Iliad, or the Odyssey, or the Divine Comedy. But each of those was written in verse. Then along comes Don Quixote, which looks a lot like the fiction of Homer or Dante, but written in PROSE (non-verse). Don Quixote is considered the first modern novel because it was one of the first to contain a fictional narrative, written in prose.

Created by Irma Nydia Villanueva-RiveraSpanish Teacher, Puerto Rico Department of Education

[email protected]://irmavillanuevarivera.wordpress.comhttp://lenguajelenguayhabla.blogspot.com