In its most basic sense, verbal irony entails saying one thing when meaning the opposite, often for a humorous effect. Writers such as William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and John Milton wrote many of the works that are still the standards by which much of English literature is judged. During the Renaissance, scholars rediscovered the works of Plato as they filtered into Europe through Muslim Spain and Byzantium. Two useful dates, a rough beginning and end, are 1492, when Columbus landed in Guanahani, and 1660, when Charles II ascended to the throne of England, restoring the English monarchy. Artists strived to depict people and objects in a true-to-life way. The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general movement of the Renaissance, which arose in 14th-century Italy and continued until the 16th century while being diffused into the rest of the western world. Following these misfortunes, Cervantes wrote his masterpiece El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha (translated as The History of that Ingenious Gentleman: Don Quixote de La Mancha), commonly referred to simply as Don Quixote, which details the misadventures of a madman. Or at least he tries. 1) Earliest Renaissance literature appeared in Italy during the 14th century 2) Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio, and Aristo are some the Renaissance most famous writers 3) Many writings from the Renaissance were influenced by the study of humanism and classical ideas 4) Literature was connected with the religion That music hath a far more pleasing sound; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. Thomas More's Utopia, published in 1516, is one of the most influential works written during the Renaissance. Cervantes died of edema on April 22, 1616, in Madrid, Spain. However, the dissemination of knowledge was increasing, which made it possible to combat ignorance and popular tradition. Features of Renaissance buildings include the use of the classical orders and mathematically precise ratios of height and width combined with a desire for symmetry, proportion, and harmony. During the Renaissance there was a rebirth of interest in ancient Greece and Rome . Note: this is for works published DURING the Renaissance. For more information about this format, please see the Archive Torrents collection. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Renaissance literature was characterized by emphasizing themes such as: Renaissance literature marked the return of the classical style of learning that had largely been ignored during the Middle Ages because most writers glorified the Catholic Church and its teachings. Later, convinced that she has made love to Cassio, Othello will come to say, under Iago's influence, "O curse of marriage/That we can think these delicate creatures ours/And not their appetites!" Sonnet 130: My Mistress' Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun. When Lodovico says, "the object poisons sight,/Let it be hid," the horror he feels is for a forbidden union as much as for the deaths this union has caused. Rather, the term "essays," translated from the original French title of the book, Les essais (meaning "tests" or "attempts"), refers to the introspective, or self-driven, experimental methods that Montaigne used to explore the limits of his own human experiencethe dominant idea of Humanism. But not all have Iago's confidence. Othello remembers with grief how he had "done the state some service" before his replacement as general and administrator of Cyprus. The nameRenaissancerefers to the rediscovery of the Greco-Roman philosophy on which bothliteratureand the rest of the artistic disciplines of the movement were based. Lewis, C. S., The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1994. True or False: Renaissance literature was characterized by humanist themes and a return to classical ideals of tragedy and comedy. 1510s: Erasmus publishes The Praise of Folly, a seminal humanist work that advocates interpreting the Bible with realistic, scholarly methods to determine God's true intent instead of relying solely on church tradition. Is he so sure in his mind that he is safe that he wishes to taunt the devil? What is the "resolution" presented in the couplet at the end? The revolutionary Renaissance literaturewas based on the concept of humanismthat generated both positive and negative responses from readers, due to the criticism it showed towards the Catholic Church. Romanticism in Literature | Characteristics & Examples. For Further Study It was a complex transitional movement which took place in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. The Restoration Period in England Timeline & Literature | What was the Restoration Period? Henry died in 1633; Carey died in 1639. . It stressed on rational thinking and humanism. . The Renaissance proved a period of great cultural and artistic achievement for Europe; it was also a time of political and religious strife. This was also the time of the Protestant Reformation, and the invention of the printing press. The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general movement of the Renaissance that arose in 13th century Italy and continued until the 16th century while being diffused into the western world. This method is the only unifying factor in the book. Many historians and critics acknowledge a "protorenaissance" that preceded and laid the groundwork for the actual Renaissance. The history of English Literature is spread over different eras including Old English or Anglo Saxon, The Renaissance, Victorian Era, Modern Era, Postmodern era, amongst others. Encyclopedia.com. And yet, again, though many have seen in Othello's final end a full recovery of tragic greatness, Shakespeare's vision may be too pessimistic to allow that either. Faustus glosses over this and the other spells the devil demonstrates. Wells, Stanley, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, Cambridge University Press, 1986. It is hard to admire Othello uncritically once having read T. S. Eliot on this hero's famous final speech ("What Othello seems to me to be doing in making this speech is cheering himself up. On the other hand, for those who were open to the new ideas Renaissance literature proposed, the works were received very well. The Europeans of the Renaissance took ideas from the ancient . In 1626, Carey was disowned by her husband and made a house prisoner when it was discovered that she planned to convert to Catholicism. Today: There continues to be a market for printed books, though literature is also being published and distributed by electronic media. However, Faustus soon takes a turn back to his theological side. 5- Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe) This important work of the Renaissance is based on stories about Faust, a popular figure in German culture. The Yale Shakespeare, Barnes & Noble Books, 1993, pp. From this point on, parishioners gathered in two factions, Catholics and Protestants. ", We may connect the jealousy aroused so readily in Othello with one of those postnuptial awakenings that come to men unprepared for the active sexuality of the women they marry. However, the dissemination of knowledge was increasing, which made it possible to combat ignorance and popular tradition. These years produced a gallery of authors of genius, some of whom have never been surpassed, and conferred on scores of lesser talents the enviable ability to write with fluency, imagination, and verve. Rabelais died in 1553 in France. Whom is the poet addressing in the sonnet? Erasmus, Desiderius, The Praise of Folly, edited by Horace Bridges, Pascalcovici, 1925, pp. Two years later, Henry retaliated by declaring himself the supreme head of the Church of England. Moreover, he himself goes so far as to deny the sensuality of his feelings for his beautiful bride. The first quatrain refers to the first four lines, the second to the next four, and the third to the next four. Roughly corresponding to the period between the late 14th century to the early 17th century, many historians consider this epoch to coincide with a cultural . For Brabantio, miscegenation is, classically, a threat of redefinition not to be made less threatening by proof of Othello's worthiness. Many scholars of English literature concede that English poetry had not seen and has yet to see another period like that which lasted roughly from the mid 16th to the late 17th century. Poets used repetition to emphasize their themes. When Othello lands in Cyprus to find her already there waiting for him he greets her, "O my fair warrior!" . Out of all of his works, Erasmus's satire The Praise of Folly had the greatest influence on later humanist writers, who mimicked Erasmus's style in their own satirical works. The word "Renaissance" means "rebirth". Preferment goes by letter and affection And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to th' first. Renaissance means "rebirth" in French. Critics are mistaken who have spoken of Othello's "recovery" in the final scene when he seems to become, again, a fearless soldier and romantic lover who dies by his own hand. The people began to focus on the way to create oil painting during the early period. The most infamous of these is The Prince. Brabantio charged Othello before the Venetian signory with having bound Desdemona in "chains of magic"for how, otherwise, could she, "so opposite to marriage that she shunned/The wealthy, curled darlings of our nation" and incurred "the general mock," have "run from her guardage to the sooty bosom/Of such a thing"? While critics are in disagreement as to when this proto-renaissance began, the period lasted approximately from the twelfth century (when many universities were built) to the first half of the fifteenth century (up until the advent of the printing press). CRITICAL OVERVIEW SOURCES Tradition holds that William Shakespeare, son of John and Mary Arden Shakespeare, was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, although the specific date of his birth has not been verified. Part of Henry's duties was the prosecution of Irish Catholics. An error occurred trying to load this video. Both humanism and Puritanism worked to overthrow the cultural norms of old religion in favor of new ideas that helped humanity, though they went about it in very different ways. Debbie has over 28 years of teaching experience, teaching a variety of grades for courses like English, Reading, Music, and more. To match this, Othello's disclaimer to the Duke and Senators of Venice of his physical desire for his wife may be connected to his fear of their physical union stated in almost the same terms when he declares that all he looks forward to is "but to be free and bounteous to her mind.". It began focusing more on individualism, an important change of thought from the previous eras which saw the individual as entirely part of the whole. Mephistopheles hints at this when he says he will bring women "as beautiful" as Lucifer was, before his expulsion from heaven. Paradoxically, Iago actually increases Othello's self-doubt when he suggests that Desdemona has not freed herself from her father's racism. She is remembered and celebrated as the first woman to write a play in English. The Renaissance Period is said to be responsible for bridging the Middle Ages and the Modern Civilization. He asks for a wife from Mephistopheles, and the devil brings him another devil in the guise of a woman. He gives orders for a wedding party while he leads his wife to bed, but the party grows wild and brings Cassio into disgrace, and Othello and Desdemona are interrupted once moreafter which Othello lingers on with the wounded Montano, saying to his wife, with some equanimity, "Come Desdemona: 'tis the soldiers' life/To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife." Introduction . . Why did the use of vernacular spread during the Renaissance? Despite the grimness of this tragic history, the comic foregrounding of sex, as in farce, is both invoked and obscured in a play in which so much of the time the marriage bed is at least present to mind even if offstage, just guessed at, though unseen, like the sexual union enacted there. The rich literary production in New England during the next quarter centuryin many senses a response to Emerson's provocationconstituted what came to be known as the American Renaissance. Today: After many transformations in Italian government, city-states have been abandoned in favor of a democratic republic. Satire is an attack or protest, created by portraying the object of the protest in an unfavorable manner and hoping to bring about change. The term Renaissance means "Rebirth". Literary characters in the 1600s included comedic, dramatic, and allegorical characters who represented the new thoughts of the time. . During the six years he was in London, Marlowe wrote plays, the most famous of which is Dr. Faustus. New literary genres such as the essay (Montaigne) and new metrical forms such as the Spenserian stanza made their appearance. Johnson notes, "By 1500, after forty-five years of the printed book, the total has been calculated at nine million." Othello tells his victim, "Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee/And love thee after," and then, having done so, "I kissed thee ere I killed thee. CRITICISM 8, 81. God is present but marginal in the works; "Renaissance Madonnas make it difficult to recite a properly devout Hail Mary" (because they celebrate earthly beauty). Indeed, there is evidence in the text to support both of these assumptions. in Education Literacy and Learning for Grades 6-12. It should be noted that Erasmus, like other humanist writers, wished to reform the Catholic Church while keeping it unified. In the end, this spells his ruin. A Brief History of Harlem Renaissance Literature. 1. The Renaissance is one of the most interesting and disputed periods of European history. He will continue to refer to himself as "thou" or "Doctor Faustus" off and on throughout the play. "I do not, however, consider our vulgar tongue, as it now is, to be so vile, so abject as do these ambitious admirers of the Greek and Latin tongues," says Bellay, arguing against the prevailing belief that only the classical languages could produce literary greatness. At the end of the play, Macbeth relies on this prophecy when he fights Macduff. This is one of the many paradoxes in the play. He thinks he will have twenty-four years of power and then get off easy, and yet the first question he asks Mephistopheles after officially pledging his soul to Lucifer is what hell is like. In his varied career, Rabelais worked as priest, physician, scholar, and writer. Religion and faith still played a major role in literature, but did not act as the single central theme. studied the classical Greek and Romans works in Literature, history, rhetoric, music and art. Scholasticism. The base of Renaissance art was traced back in the Classical antiquity. . Providing a wealth of information, this A-to-Z encyclopedia is a comprehensive one-volume reference to the literary works, writers, and concepts of the Renaissance. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. The main genres were poetry and drama, though comedies and satires also existed. The writers of the Renaissance not only wanted to imitate art, they hoped to change reality through art. What is Renaissance Literature? Copyright 2022 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Education. This book examines the medieval view of the world, giving historical and cultural background that allows for a greater understanding of medieval and Renaissance literature. More than a million books are available now via BitTorrent. As cities began to prosper, religious corruption increased and the influence of the Church waned; however, writers rediscovered the classics and began to incorporate them into their own works. It consisted of a moment in which the sight was turned back to the classics to recover the essence of artistic creation and to recover some forms that had been lost. Says Jonathan Hart in his introduction to Reading the Renaissance, a collection of essays examining the Renaissance as a whole, "Most often, scholars examine the national literatures of the Renaissance in isolation.". Shakespearean sonnets feature three quatrains (4 lines) and a couplet (2 lines). Many Renaissance writers were trained at these universities. Drama proved the major innovation of English writers in the Renaissance. He has been compelled to hallucinate her intimacy with a white man, but can hardly imagine his own union with her. Facts about the Renaissance The Renaissance was a period in history between the 14th and 17th Centuries, associated with a wave of new artistic, scientific and cultural achievements. Book production was on the rise and more and more people were attending university, two privileges that, until then, only the representatives of the priestly class enjoyed. Othello's collapse into murderous violence would seem to be an illustration of the way, according to the racist view, the coating of civilization must slide readily off the "savage" personality. These writers helped open doors for later ones, including William Shakespeare, who some critics consider the greatest dramatist and poet of all time. More's Utopia inspired many imaginary societies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is so famous that the word "utopia" came to signify both any idealized place and the literary form that depicts such a place. Shakespeare may have wanted us to wonder how well their lovemaking had gone or if it had even got under way, and to sustain the doubt in Iago's earlier question, "Are you well married? Yet nothing can be more fragile than Othello's self-making, which has none of Iago's confidence in being whatever, for the occasion, he wills himself to be. Hall, Vernon, A Short History of Literary Criticism, New York University Press, 1963, pp. Interested in politics. flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? The "issue" raised is her rather lackluster beauty. By referring to the process of duping the people into faith as milking a cow, Erasmus sets up a negative image in the readers' minds and causes them to think about his argument. 4, Spring 2002, pp. Renaissance architecture originated in Italy and superseded the Gothic style over a period generally defined as 1400 to 1600. Iago will remark a bit later to Cassio, "he to-night hath boarded a land carrack," implicitly comparing Othello's sexual conquest to the seizure of a Spanish or Portuguese treasure ship (a "car-rack") by an English privateerin other words, an act of social piracy. One of the greatest poetic achievements was John Milton's Paradise Lost. When you are finished, you should be able to: To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. 31, 48. Writing "Divine Comedy", he, in fact, revealed the essence of a man of his time. Bovilsky, Lara, Barbarous Play: Race on the English Renaissance Stage, University of Minnesota Press, 2008. DESIGN YOUR PRIVATE PARIS TOUR NOW As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 84,000 The invention of the printing press enabled writers to publish their works. The roles were rigidly typed and the plots were formulaic, usually revolving around young lovers who thwarted their elders and attained wealth and happiness. A sestet (six lines) of varying rhyme patterns, such as cdecde or cdccdc. This stranger with an exotic, almost mythical otherness has acquired a place within the order of Venice by his own efforts on behalf of a colonial empire. While no exact consensus exists as to when the Renaissance began or when it ended, most scholars accept the notion that the period began sometime during the 15th century. Writers in this period tended to believe that humanity was capable of great deeds on Earth, rather than just working for a reward in the afterlife. Viroli, Maurizio, Niccolo's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Nuremberg in southern Germany was the central city of the German Renaissance. Instead, if Faustus asks for human women, he will bring more devils. 'Renaissance' is a French term which means rebirth or revival; Rebirth of literature and art in the 14th and 16th century on the old classical models. In addition, in many cases the writer and critic were the same, as in the aforementioned examples of works promoting the use of vernacular language. More, Thomas, Utopia, edited by George M. Logan and Robert M. Davis, Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. He is so sure of his success that he taunts him, telling Macduff about the prophecy that he cannot be killed by a man of woman born. The play suggests that Othello himself is engaged in a deferral of this forbidden act. Moreover, they also rediscovered the insight to create concrete. When the devil appears for the first time, he is so hideous that he scares Faustus: "I charge thee to return and change thy shape. that commonly are so meek and eat so little; now, as I hear, they have become so greedy and fierce that they devour men themselves." Her activeness may be sexual. It also places less emphasis on religion, though religion still plays a part in it. Playwrights mixed things up by manipulating the traditional genres of tragedy and comedy. The earliest Renaissance literature appeared in Italy in the 14th century; Petrarch, Machiavelli, and Ariosto are notable examples of Italian Renaissance writers. But the collapse of personal being he is already experiencing is inseparable from the loss of occupation. Many Renaissance works survive into the twenty-first century as some of the most celebrated in history. The Renaissance was a cultural, scholarly, and socio-political movement which stressed the rediscovery and application of texts and thought from classical antiquity. "The Renaissance Man" is an important concept that is a big part of what defines Renaissance Humanism, as it exemplifies someone who can achieve what they want and excel at many disciplines. The Renaissance began with resurgence in classical learning, including the study and proper use of Latin. 100. It began in the 1300s, during the late Middle Ages . In Renaissance literature, examples include Hamlet, Don Quixote, and Lucifer. Last edited on 14 September 2022, at 16:46, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age literature, German literature#German Renaissance and Reformation, Portuguese literature#First classical phase: The Renaissance, Swedish literature#Renaissance literature, General Resources in the Renaissance & 17th Century, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Renaissance_literature&oldid=1110287957, This page was last edited on 14 September 2022, at 16:46. He was among the first generation of astronomers to be trained with the Theoricae novae and the Epitome.Shortly before 1514 he began to revive Aristarchus's idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun. In the early years of the nineteenth century American authors such as William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), Washington Irving (1783-1759), and James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) achieved critical recognition in America and England for their literary merits. . Currently pursuing a B.A. The Age of Exploration brought wealth and possibility to those brave enough, and the Protestant Reformation gave voice to those dissatisfied with the established Church. Proud of their city and defending its liberty. "Renaissance Literature FAUSTUS IS AT THIS POINT A HUMANIST TO THE EXTREME, FOR IF ONE CARRIES ALONG TO A SUPERLATIVE DEGREE THE IDEA OF BELIEVING IN HUMAN POWER TO BETTER ONESELF, IT TURNS INTO THE BELIEF THAT HUMANITY CAN SUPERSEDE GOD.". And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare. . What types of literature were popular during the English Renaissance? He compares her breasts to snow but finds them "dun" or quite gray. Cerasano, S. P., and Marion Wynne-Davies, eds. But, perhaps, he is a "tawny Moor" from the Mediterranean rim, like the Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice,ora Berber or "erring Barbarian," as Iago puns, or the "Barbary horse" who has "covered" Desdemona, as the same racist provocateur vulgarly tells Brabantio. Christopher Marlowe, son of John and Catherine Marlowe, was born in February 1564 in Canterbury, England. For this is how, according to the code of Venice, a Venetian woman should feel; it is perfectly "natural." Florence was the key city for the arts during the Italian Renaissance. Frye, Roland M., "Marlowe's Dr. Faustus:The Repudiation of Humanity," in Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Doctor Faustus," edited by Willard Farnham, Prentice-Hall, 1969, p. 56. Retrieved October 27, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/renaissance-literature. Erasmus, Desiderius, The Praise of Folly and Other Writings: A New Translation with Critical Commentary, Norton, 1989. Within Florence, a number of factions vied for power. 992, 1150. The successful navigation around Africa's Cape of Good Hope in the 1450s was one such voyage, while Christopher Columbus's discovery of America in 1492 was another. Debbie Notari received her Bachelors degree in English and M.S. Historical Context Literary Movements for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Literary Movements. copyright 2003-2022 Study.com. Classical Literary Criticism: Role & Theories, Neoclassical Literature | Authors, Characteristics & Movement, The Symbolist Movement in Art & Literature. Erasmus is saying that if people were more educated about the Church and its injustices instead of just relying on the Church's comforting assurances, people would not be so willing to give their faith to the Church. Her source was Antiquities of the Jews, by Josephus, which recounts the story of King Herod's cruelty toward his wife Mariam. Renaissance literature places more emphasis on the individual. But this is exactly what her social desertion must seem to white society, something more adulterous, indeed, than the affair with Cassio of which she is falsely accused. Because his father was a man of some civic importance, it is assumed that Shakespeare received a well-rounded, humanistic education. This shift in learning - from relying on all wisdom from the Church to developing understanding and reason - exacerbated an appreciation for the human individual. In England, the Renaissance spirit of criticism increasingly focused on the Catholic Church. In the following essay, Poquette discusses Doctor Faustusas an example of two warring ideologies in Christopher Marlowe's play of the same name. The Renaissance is a good part of the Italian History and it is all tested and assessed in the online quiz below. The term 'Renaissance' literally means rebirth or revival. Or is there a nagging doubt from his Christian side that has prompted him to ask the question? In addition, many writers produced works defending the decision to use vernacular, of which Joachim du Bellay's Defence and Illustration of the French Language is one of the most famous. Sir Thomas Browne published his spiritual autobiography, "Religio Medici," or "The Religion of a Doctor" in addition to works on topics as disparate as the methods of human burial and the presence of geometric patterns in nature.
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