5Aa - Literature The Renaissance

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

The renaissance

momento mori --> carpe diem

Middle Ages recap

- Romans --> Anglo-Saxons --> Normans

- Theocentric society

- Three social classes (Nobility, Clergy, Commoners)

- Religious and Secular Literature

- High Germanic, Old Norse, Latin, French

Middle Ages (Middle English Period)

God as centre

Humans as centre

Chaucer

Beowulf

Shakespeare

Norman Conquest

epic poems/stories

courtly love

Middle Ages vs The Renaissance

• What changed?
• collective vs individual
• theocentric vs humanistic
• dogmatic belief vs critical investigation
• MEMENTO MORI vs CARPE DIEM

Which of the following works was not written in the Middle Ages?

1. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
2. The Wanderer
3. Frankenstein
4. The Fox & the Wolf

Renaissance: Britain

- Roughly around 1500-1670 

- Introduced to England by Henry Tudor VII  (1485 - 1547)

- Highlights during the Elizabethan era (1558 - 1603)

Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) shows the correlations of ideal human body proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in his De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being like the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture.

Rebirth

- Fall of Constantinople to Mehmet II ( Ottoman Empire)

- (Re-)Establishment of contact with Islamic world

- Re-discovery of Classical Texts

- (Re-)Introduction of Science and Philosophy into religious way of thinking

- Momento mori -->Carpe Diem

- Rise of Humanism (''man is the measure of all things'')

Society

- Society became more anthropocentric

(humand as the centre)

- Science vs. Religion

The Renaissance and Humanism

Cultural development - Renaissance - Rebirth

Rediscovered art, literature and philosophy of Greece and Rome

Theocentric (God) > Anthropocentric (Mankind)

Memento Mori > Carpe Diem

Printing press (1450)

Humanism

Remember that you must die versus Seize the Day

Printing press lead to the democratisation of knowledge - easier and cheaper to produce books - ideas could spread much more quickly - fertile ground for the development of humanism

Humanism

School of philosophy / World-vision

Optimistic, human-oriented and forward-looking view of life

Individualistic

Humanists believed that it was possible to create an ideal society on earth. 

Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man

Consequences:

Curiosity about the nature of the world (Copernicus)

Exploration (Columbus - 1492)

Cultural revival -> Art (Da Vinci and Michelangelo)
-> Literature (Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton)

Scientific experimentation
Copernicus proved that the earth revolved around the sun. Galileo Galilei discovered the telescope and much more

discovered America in 1492

Da Vinci and Michelangelo - drew upon the achievements of classical antiquity. Put your name to your work. 

England mainly in literature

Literature

- Influence of Classical writings: Roman and Greek works

- Italy as birthplace of the arts
- Italy  as birth place of many literary forms: sonnet (Petrarch)
But also a shakespearean sonnet

- Printing Press  --> mass printing possible (william Caxton)

Literature

• "The most brilliant period of all time"
• Drama, comedy, tragedy plays (by Shakespeare)
  drama = Romeo and Juliet
  comedy = As you like it
  tragedy = Hamlet / McBeth
• Focus on 'man and his emotions'
• Poetry, plays, essays, sonnets focus on love and beauty

Sonnet

Sonnets

- fourteen-line poem
- The lines follow the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (English Sonnet
-  ABBA ABBA while the rhyme scheme for the sestet is either CDEDCE or CDCDCD (Italian Sonnet)

- about (unrequited) love and beauty

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

Sonnet 130

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

Middle Ages

Renaissance

Beowulf

Macbeth

William the Conqueror

carpe diem

Printing Press

momento
mori

William Caxton

Chaucer

"There was a spark of interest in the tangible things in life". How does this relate to the rise of humanism?