Renaissance Literature

1. Renaissance Literature

2. Renaissance Literature • Humanism - intellectual movement valuing the inherent good in humans and a celebration, of sorts, of human ability and accomplishments. • Sought to answer these questions: • What is a human being? • What is a good life? • How do I lead a good life? • Looked to the Bible and the classics to answer these questions • John Gutenberg invented moveable type and 1st printing press • Transformed the way information was exchanged

3. Renaissance Literature • Many Renaissance authors wrote in the vernacular-the native language of a people • Authors before this wrote in Latin • This makes literature more readily available to all people • Authors wrote to express themselves and tried to show the individuality of the subjects

4. Renaissance Literature • Francesco Petrarch- Father of Humanism • Wrote in both Italian and Latin • Wrote 14 line poems called sonnets • Most famous sonnets about Laura • Believed to be Laura de Noves • -It is believed she died from the plague

5. Sonnet #56 • Se col cieco desir che 'l cor distruggecontando l'ore no m'inganno io stesso,ora mentre ch'io parlo il tempo fuggech'a me fu inseme et a mercé promesso.Qual ombra è sí crudel che 'l seme adugge,ch'al disïato frutto era sí presso?et dentro dal mio ovil qual fera rugge?tra la spiga et la man qual muro è messo?Lasso, nol so; ma sí conosco io beneche per far piú dogliosa la mia vitaamor m'addusse in sí gioiosa spene.Et or di quel ch'i' ò lecto mi sovene,che 'nanzi al dí de l'ultima partitahuom beato chiamar non si convene. • If, through blind desire that destroys the heart,I do not deceive myself counting the hours,now, while I speak these words, the time nearsthat was promised to pity and myself.What shade is so cruel as to blight the cropwhich was so near to a lovely harvest?And what wild beast is roaring in my fold?What wall is set between the hand and grain?Ah, I do not know: but I see only too wellthat in joyous hope love led me ononly to make my life more sorrowful.And now I remember words that I have read:before the day of our final partingwe should not call any man blessed

6. Niccolo Machiavelli • Wrote “The Prince” • One of the most important books of all time • Helped change peoples ideas about authority and leadership • Still widely read today.

7. The Prince On Religion One significant way in which Machiavelli contributed to thenew confidence in man was in his separation of politics fromreligion and his challenge to the secular authority of the Church. The human activity of politics, Machiavelli believed,can be isolated from other forms of activity and treated in itsown autonomous terms. In a word politics can be divorced fromtheology, and government from religion. No longer is the stateviewed as having a moral end or purpose. Its end is not theshaping of human souls, but the creation of conditions which would enable men to fulfill their basic desires of self-preservation, security, and happiness. Religion has the vital function of personal salvation, of serving as an importantinstrument of social control--a basis for civic virtue rather than moral virtue. -Anthony Parel, The Political Calculus, 1972

8. Themes from The Prince • If you injure someone only lightly they can still take revenge, if you crush them they can not revenge. • "We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed. " • “A prince should not deviate from what is good, if that is possible, but he should know how to do evil, if that is necessary.” • “The answer is of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.” • How To Rule

9. WilliamShakespeare • Lived from 1564-1616 • Grew up 60 miles from London • Intended to be an actor • Original thinker—began writing to bring up new plays • New plays were so popular that he was asked to write more • Financially secure—retired during the height of his success

10. Shakespeare’s Influence • Introduced violence to the stage in a very violent society • Instrumental in organizing powerful acting groups—part owner in several theatres

11. Tragedy A serious play or drama typically dealing with the problems of a central character, leading to an unhappy or disastrous ending brought on, as in ancient drama, by a fate and a tragic flaw in this character, or in modern drama, usually by moral weakness, psychological maladjustment or social pressures.

12. Tragic Hero • A person of high rank who is brought to eventual ruin by a flaw in his/her character. • Example: Macbeth’s tragic flaw is his ambition which leads him into a series of bloody and increasingly indefensible acts.