Notes of all the lectures for Literature 1B for the midterm exam.
(From week 1-7). The powerpoint slides are not anywhere online. I've made my own notes during the lectures and added a timeline of classical periods at the end of the document.
Lecture 1
Ciassicai Period (Eariy 15th C. / Renaissance – Now)
p. 88 in Kiarer: What is Renaissance? : the term renaissance, meaning rebirth, expresses this basic
concern of the period.
Renaissance (‘rebirth’)
word was coined by Itaiian writer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) but the term did not come into
generai use unti 19th C.
used by 19th C. historians to denote both a specifc tme period in history and to describe a
set of distnct cuiturai ideas and vaiues (which weren’t there before)
Engiand was fairiy iate in joining the Renaissance.
Western history periods
1. Antiquity ends ca. 500
2. Middie Ages / ‘Dark Ages’ ca. 500 – 1350/1400
3. Renaissance begins ca. 1350/1400
Renaissance vs Eariy Modern (synonym)
Renaissance (rebirth suggests you’re iooking back at tme)
Eariy Modern = iooking forward at what stii has to be (‘near future’)
In the Renaissance: scientfc expioratons Nichoias Copernicus: ‘sun is center of universe’
- Discovery of the worid: i.e. Coiumbus 1492 worid is bigger than previousiy known
- Discovery of man
Main characters of Eariy Modern Period
- New iearning
- Emphasis on man
- New reiigion
New iearning: iast roman empire faiis. Western Europe divided eastern Europe, roman empire
contnues to exist (Constantnopie)
West spoke Latn, East spoke Greek.
Communicaton between the two seized to exist. West iost skiii of being abie to read Greek.
(originai), oniy Latn transiatons.
Revivai of knowiedge of ciassicai Greek
476: faii of western roman empire
1453: faii of Constantnopie / Byzantum
o Greeks come/fee to west with their vaiues and knowiedge
New iearning for westerners from ciassics rebirth
, Renaissance Humanism
Renaissance schoiars sought to recover, to revive, to imitate and to emuiate the achievements of
ciassicai antiquity.
Ch. 9 Isabei Rivers her defniton of Renaissance Humanism
A ciassicai schoiar with 2 compiementary aims: to recover the morai vaiues of ciassicai iife, and to
imitate the ianguage and styie of the ciassics as a means to that and he hoped to unite wisdom
(sapienta) and eioiquence (eloquenta)
‘Humanism’ comes from Latn ‘humanitas’ which means
1. ‘humankind’ or ‘humanity’ but aiso
2. Transiaton of Greek word ‘paideia’, which stands for cuiture or for a iiberai educaton
which fuiiy deveiops a human being.
New Reiigion
more critcai iook at the Bibie, their own church (roman cathoiic)
Period of Reformaton: birth of Protestantsm (Martn Luthor)
Mythoiogy
Mythoiogicai references can work as a sort of ianguage, a ‘code’ even as a sort of shorthand
code, to communicate meaning
‘Myth’ and ‘Mythoiogy’
In ciassicai Greek, the word ‘myth’ (mythos) originaiiy meant ‘speech, that which is spoken’
or ‘word’, iater it came to signify a narratve/story.
‘logos’: ‘word’, connected to reason and thought
A myth can be seen as one story in a mythoiogy, that is, a system (logos) that connects the stories
(mythoi) with another.
Myth was used to expiain why the worid is a sit is and why things happen as they do, especiaiiy in our
reiaton to the intentons and actons of deites and other supernaturai beings.
Ch. 2 Isabei Rivers pagan gods/goddesses
Mythoiogy is not a fxed system. Mythic characters & images may remain stabie, but interpretaton of
stories shifts from period to period and from writer to writer.
2 terms:
Nachieben: afteriife: stands for adaptaton/appreciaton of a myth by iater writers, thereby
ensuring that that myth survives and has an ‘afteriife’.
Transformaton: the process of change that a specifc myth undergoes when it is used by
iater writers.
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