Study Guide: Renaissance

Sorry to all other readers, but I have to take care of things for my Brit Lit class. Here is a study guide for the Renaissance Unit.

But this makes me think, what are the study habits people usually have? I have to study for hours in advance usually, and I have to write everything down, usually in the form of a study guide that I can hopefully use for the final. Does anyone else have new ways to study? I would love some new ideas to spice up this incredibly time consuming part of my life.

Renaissance Study Guide

Themes & Ideas

Humanism & Rhetoric

-Humanism (philosophy): "Man is the measure of all things" Man is God's crowning creation and therefore to be emphasized and gloried in.
                -Christian Humanism: Focus on Man's personal relation with God. Man as a reflection of God. (Translates to man protestant ideas)
                -Man can become as God; self-fashioning, self-reliance (Paradise Lost- Satan). But man can possibly push it too far (Dr. Faustus).
-Humanism (education): Emphasis on RHETORIC
                -Erasmus: great Humanist teacher, De Copia, manual to Humanist teaching, used amplification, debate, made language a game.

 - Lorenzo Valla: expert in philology; published On the Donation of Constantine, proved that the document was false using solely linguistic analysis.

                -Queen Elizabeth: taught by Roger Askum (trained by Erasmus), taught the art of Humanist rhetoric. Used in her “Golden Speech,” established ethos, logos, and pathos.

                -Listed Characteristics: secular, neo-Latin, based in literature, Focus on classical literature (Cicero, Vergil, Homer), Rhetoric emphasized over Grammar and Logic.

                -emphasized Imitation

                -Shakespeare an example of Humanist education; “To be or not to be” an amplification

                -also emphasized Oratorical education, would hold open debates, etc.

New Worlds

-Literally: age of exploration began during the Renaissance

-Beginning of travel writing; Sir Walter Raleigh

                -exaggeration

                -conquest

                -ideal

                -“the other”

-Encouraged new literary forms; as people could explore new geographical worlds, they could also explore new literary worlds (Herbert, Sonnet, Faustus, Reformation)

-emphasized the importance and power of language: style of language determines style of society?

-encouraged the organization of language (increase the art of rhetoric)

-Utopia

                -Sir Thomas More

                -Ambiguous, flaws shown in both Utopia and society

                -U-topia = no place or Eu-topia = good place

                -example of how conversation (or rhetoric) leads to debate

                -As things began to change in Renaissance world people naturally sought for something better or new in society (and perhaps even in their literature?)

Protestant Reformation

-Prepared for: John Wycliffe, Lorenzo de Valla, Gutenburg Printing press, Erasmus (translation from Greek to Latin), John Calvin

-Vernacular translation of the Bible

                -John Wycliffe: Lollard Bible

                -Erasmus: New Testament translation (imitated techniques learned from Valla)

                -Luther: German translation

                -Tyndale’s English translation (1525)

                - Geneva Bible (1560): chapters/verses, more readable, more transportable, open to masses

                - King James Version (1611): most based on Tyndale

-Colet v. Latimer

                -Colet: pre-reformation, clerical, logos, authoritative, diplomatic, lacks personality, given in Latin, more Catholic

                -Latimer: 1548, post-reformation, higher tensions, English, popular venue, organized around conceit, pathos, alliteration, personification, smaller metaphors, self-effacing, more protestant in nature

-Donne: devotional poetry, Satire 3: conflict between which church is right and the motivations behind new church members

-Henry VIII: divorces from church for a personal divorce

-New religious art developed; the emphasis on personal relationships with God influenced protestants to have more personal reflections within their literature (George Herbert "Jordan 2"). 

Print Culture & Vernacular Literacy

-Gutenburg printing press

-Translations of the Bible into the vernacular (see above)

-More wide spread literacy resulted in development of literary canons, enabled people to have a collection of written works to which they could respond.

-Pamphlet craze as a means of political motivation (Milton's Aeropagitica)

Wit

-The Renaissance emphasis on eloquence, or the ability to present a concept in a new or innovative manner.

-Think metaphysical poetry:

            -Donne: "The Flea," the Holy Sonnets, creating new connections 

            -Herbert: "The Alter" "Easter Wings" experimenting with new forms of poetry

-Development of new print form, with which poets could play with as a reflection of their poetry (Herbert, "The Alter" and "Easter Wings")

-Sonnets carried around in small books, The Book of Common Prayer; literature becomes more transportable and therefore more influential on everyday people. 

-Literature, and literacy becomes more personal; reinforces the personal habits developed as a result of the Reformation

Court Culture

-Henry VIII: Various reactions to his political take over of the church; Thomas More executed as a result.

            -With Henry's change, followed an era of inconsistency in the monarch in regards to religion; Edward: protestant, Mary: catholic, Elizabeth: protestant (Elizabeth was the most religiously tolerant, said that as long as people went to church they could believe whatever they wanted). 

-Elizabeth: educated in a Humanist manner, therefore used rhetoric in her political affiliations

            -Some artists not in favor with court; Philip Sidney (disliked by Elizabeth, found more favor with James)

-Stuarts: ushered in a new era of political tension as conflict erupted between the monarch and parliament. Resulted in the civil war (effects seen in Paradise Lost)

            -Rise of Parliament: Aeropagitica

-Also some cultural cues found in Sir Walter Raleigh's letter to the queen