Transcript Renaissance Changes Literature

Renaissance Changes Literature
• Renaissance writers produced works
that reflected the time period
• However, their works also used
techniques still used today
• Some followed the example of
medieval writer Dante
• He wrote in the vernacular (Italian)
rather than classical Latin
• Vernacular = native language
• In addition, writers wrote either for selfexpression
• Or to portray (show) the individuality of
their subjects
• These trends are still used by modern
writers today
Petrarch & Boccaccio
• Francesco Petrarch was one of the earliest
and most influential humanists
• He was also a great poet
• Petrarch wrote both in Italian & Latin
• In Italian he wrote sonnets (14 line poems)
• They were about Laura, his ideal woman
• Little is known about her except she died
in the plague
• The Italian writer Boccaccio is best known
for the Decameron,
• It is a series of realistic, sometimes offcolor stories
• It is told by a group of worldly young
people waiting in a villa to avoid the
plague sweeping through Florence
• The humor of the Decameron is cutting &
presents the follies of humans with
sarcasm
Machiavelli
• The Prince (1513), by Niccolo
Machiavelli also examines the
imperfect conduct of humans
• He does it in the form of a political
guidebook named The Prince
• Machiavelli examines how a ruler
can gain power
• But more importantly keep it in
spite of his enemies
• He begins with the idea that most
people are selfish, fickle, & corrupt
• To succeed in such a wicked world
he said a prince must be strong as
a lion & shrewd as a fox
• He might have to trick his enemies
and even his own people for the
good of the state
Northern Writers
• Just as Italian art influenced Northern
painters, so did Renaissance ideas
influence the writers & philosophers of
Northern Europe
• Writers adopted the ideas of humanism
but put more of a religious slant to it
• Because of this, some northern humanists
were also called Christian humanist
• The best known of the Christian humanist
were close friends, Desiderius Erasmus of
Holland & Thomas More of England
• Erasmus’ famous work is The Praise of
Folly
• The book poked fun at greedy merchants,
heartsick lovers, quarrelsome scholars &
pompous priests
• Erasmus believed in a Christianity of the
heart, not of ceremonies & rules
• Bible study was more important to him
Thomas More’s Utopia
• Also concerned with society’s
flaws, Thomas More tried to
show a better model
• In 1516, he wrote the book
Utopia about an imaginary land
inhabited by peace-loving people
• In Greek, Utopia means “no
place”
• However, in English it has come
to mean an “ideal place”
because of More’s book
• In Utopia, greed, corruption, war
& crime had been weeded out
• Because the Utopians weren’t
greedy, they had little use for
money
Rabelais
• The French humanist Francois
Rabelais provided a contrast to
Erasmus & More in several ways
• They wrote in Latin, while
Rabelais wrote in vernacular
(French)
• Rabelais’ comic adventure
Gargantua & Pantagruel was
more secular than Erasmus &
More’s work
• Rabelais believed that human
beings were basically good
• They should lived by instincts
rather than religious rules
• It is the story of two giants, a
father (Gargantua) and his son
(Pantagruel) and their adventures,
written in an amusing,
extravagant, satirical vein
Shakespeare
• William Shakespeare wrote in Renaissance
England
• Regarded as the greatest playwright of all time
• His works display a deep understanding of
human beings
• He reveals the souls of men & women through
dramatic conflict
• His most famous plays include the tragedies
Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, & Romeo & Juliet
• However he was also skillful at writing
comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Many of these plays examine human flaws
• However, he also expresses the Renaissance
high view of human nature
• He also studied classical culture, as shown in
his Julius Caesar, the story of the Roman
leader’s assassination
Elizabethan Age
• The Renaissance in England
is also called the Elizabethan
Age for Queen Elizabeth I
• She reigned from 1508-1603
• She was well educated,
speaking French, Italian,
Latin, & Greek
• In addition to running the
kingdom, she also wrote
poetry
• She was a patron for artists &
writers
Block Type in China
• One thing that helped spread Renaissance
ideas throughout Europe was a new
invention adapted from Chinese technology
• The Chinese had invented block printing, in
which a printer carved a work or letter on a
wooden block and then pressed it to paper
• Around 1045, Bi Sheng invented moveable
type, or a separate piece for each letter
• However, since the Chinese writing system
contained thousands of different
characters…
• Most Chinese found moveable type
impractical
• In the 1400s, block items reached Europe
• However, it was too slow to satisfy
Renaissance demand for knowledge &
books
Gutenberg Printing Press
• Johann Gutenberg, a craftsman
from Mainz, Germany reinvented
moveable type around 1440
• The method was more practical for
Europeans because their
languages have a very small
number of letters
• Gutenberg then invented the
printing press
• The printing press is a machine
that presses paper against a tray
full of inked moveable type
• Using this invention, Gutenberg
printed a complete Bible, the
“Gutenberg Bible” in 1455
• It was the first full sized book
printed with moveable type
Printing Press Creates Change
• The printing press has a
revolutionary impact on European
society
• It enabled a printer to produce
hundreds of copies, all exactly
alike, of a single work
• Books became cheap enough that
many people could buy them
• Printing spread quickly, so that by
1500, presses in about 250 cities
were producing 10 million books
• Thus, new ideas spread quicker
• Many people were illiterate, so it
encouraged people to learn to
read
• At first books were mostly
religious, but it soon spread to
other subjects
Legacy of the Renaissance
• In both Italy & northern Europe,
the Renaissance had stirred a
burst of creative activity
• Artists in both regions studied
classical culture & praised
individual achievement
• They also produced works using
new techniques
• During the 1600s, new ideas &
artistic styles appeared
• Nonetheless, Renaissance ideals
continued to influence European
thought
• For example, the Renaissance
belief in the dignity of the
individual played a key role in the
rise of democratic ideas