renaissance literature

Literature

2022

We explain what Renaissance literature is, its themes, genres and other characteristics. Also, important works and authors.

Many of the great Renaissance works are written for the theater.

What is Renaissance literature?

The literature Renaissance or literature of the Renaissance It is the set of the vast and varied literary production that is inserted in the period of the culture Western known as the Renaissance, which took place between the 15th and 16th centuries.

This period was experienced as a time of splendor, in contrast to the medieval obscurantism of past centuries. In it many of the values traditional of the antiquity Greco-Latin (and its rich literary tradition), as human reason displaced faith as the supreme value of humanity.

Renaissance literature is among the most important, central and transcendent of the history of the West, and many of its authors are classics today. Its diffusion was possible thanks to the invention of the printing around 1450, the appearance of vernacular languages, and the weakening of the Catholic Church, the result of the advent of the bourgeoisie.

On the other hand, Renaissance literature witnessed the birth of new literary genres, As the rehearsal and the novel. In addition, new models of poetic metrics emerged (such as the sonnet, with a predominance of the hendecasyllable).

In these renovations the dolce stil novo of Dante, and also the work of the Italian scholar and humanist Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), not only imitating the great pre-Renaissance authors, but also as a critic of Italian literature of his time.

Characteristics of Renaissance literature

Renaissance literature was characterized by the following:

  • It emerged in the 15th and 16th centuries, but had its first manifestations in the Italy of the 13th and 14th centuries, with the figures of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) and Giovanni Bocaccio (1313-1375).
  • He witnessed the reappearance of classical Greco-Roman motifs, as well as the conception of the art imitative that Aristotle develops in his Poetics. The predominance of religion as a subject it gives ground significantly.
  • New genres, new forms of meter and new themes emerged, influenced by the philosophy of humanism.
  • Great authors appeared who will be universally acclaimed and who today are classics of literature.
  • The main countries in which a Renaissance literary work was developed were Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, France and England.

Renaissance literature themes

The Renaissance brought with it the revaluation of Greco-Latin antiquity and its vast mythology, so that many of its narrative and poetic motifs began to reappear in Western literature, after being ignored during the medieval.

The individualism and faith in reason were the philosophical ideas behind many texts of the time, which was partly because many of the new authors had been able to have a education classical, rather than a strictly religious one.

These changes were reflected in the frequent existential interrogation of the characters literary, as is the case of Don Quixote, or in the irony and the satire so prevalent in the theater of Shakespeare, or even in the imagination of societies different from the real one.

Finally, the weakening of the Catholic Church allowed many authors to write anti-clerical criticisms and satires, which had a determining influence (although in some cases involuntary) in the emergence of the Protestant Reformation of Luther.

Genres of Renaissance literature

"Don Quixote" was the first modern novel.

In Renaissance literature various genres were cultivated:

  • The lyric. The most cultivated genus during the Renaissance was the poetry, which underwent an important renewal of forms, based on the influence of Italian authors. In this genre, in addition, a branch of a religious nature appeared, known as mystical poetry or ascetic poetry, which were two currents of the same desire to poetically approach the experience of the sacred.
  • The modern novel. The great genre born within the Renaissance was the modern novel, whose first text was The Quijote by Cervantes. This genre gained popularity in subsequent centuries and gradually established itself as the great modern genre that Europe perfected and exported to all latitudes.
  • The dramaturgy. Many of the great Renaissance plays are written to be performed in a theater. This was because the theater was the great way to communication massive inherited from earlier times, and one that did not demand the ability to read from the largely illiterate public. That is why the great works of Shakespeare or the Spanish Golden Age were theatrical pieces.
  • Rehearsal. Understood as a dissertation in prose On a specific subject, the essay made its appearance in the Renaissance. Various philosophers and thinkers cultivated it with enthusiasm, since it allowed them to reflect on the central issues and concerns of the moment. This genre, more than any other, reflected the vocation of human reason to account for the universe around, something only possible thanks to humanism and rationalism of the time.

Authors and representatives of Renaissance literature

Some of the main authors of Renaissance literature were:

  • Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). Novelist, poet, soldier and playwright, he is the famous author of The Quijote and the Exemplary novels, and the highest figure of Hispanic letters. He was popularly known as the Manco de Lepanto, for having lost the use of one hand during said battle.
  • William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The greatest author of Anglo-Saxon letters, he was an English playwright, poet and actor, known as the Bard of Avon. He is perhaps one of the most famous and appreciated authors in the entire world, whose works occupy a central place in contemporary Western culture.
  • Nicholas Machiavelli (1469-1527). Diplomat, philosopher and Italian writer, he was a relevant intellectual figure in the Renaissance and is considered the father of the Politic science, for his book of reflections on power Prince.
  • Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536). A great Dutch humanist and philologist, he cultivated an extensive work of essays, letters and treatises, which had a truly revolutionary influence throughout Europe. Thanks to him, in fact, the New Testament into English and German.
  • Garcilaso de la Vega (c. 1498-1536). Spanish poet and military man, whose work is part of the Golden Age, acquired a Petrarchan style in his work after visiting Naples on a couple of occasions. Wrote forty sonnets, five songs and another set of poetic texts that are considered the highest expression of the Castilian Renaissance.
  • François Rebelais (c. 1494-1553). Writer, humanist and doctor of French nationality, he wrote part of his work using pseudonyms, and was inspired by various traditions local and popular. Her series called Gargantua and Pantagruel about two giants gluttonous and kind.
  • Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Philosopher, writer, humanist and father of the essay as a literary genre, this Frenchman wrote all his work in the tower of his castle between 1572 and 1592, asking himself a single question: "What do I know?" He is considered one of the most prodigious minds of his time.

Works of Renaissance literature

Also, some of the most popular works of the Renaissance were:

  • Praise of madness by Erasmus of Rotterdam.
  • The matchmaker by Fernando de Rojas (originally published under the name of Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea).
  • Prince by Nicolás Machiavelli.
  • Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rebelais when we have the information.
  • The guide of Tormes anonymous author.
  • The lusiadas by Luís de Camões.
  • essays by Michel de Montaigne.
  • Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
  • The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote of La Mancha scored by Miguel de Cervantes when we have the information.
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