1. Eras in Lit: English Renaissance
AP English lit

2. Renaissance Lit – Big Questions
Should religion be tied to politics?
Why is love so complicated?
What is the ideal society?
Why do people seek power?

3. English Renaissance (1485-1660)
Pastoral Poems and Sonnets
A pastoral is a poem that portrays shepherds and rustic life, usually in an idealized manner
The speakers in the poems are not rustic commoners, but use courtly language
The form of the poem is also artificial, with meter and rhyme
A sonnet – 14 line poem with rhyme scheme and meter
Elizabethan attitude toward nature:
Intricate, complex, and beautiful
Not a subject for imitation but for improvement
Nature provides raw material to be shaped into works of art
The greater the intricacy or “artificiality” of the result, the more admired the artistry of the poet

4. English Renaissance (1485-1660)
Drama (esp. Shakespeare)
Sources
Medieval Morality Plays: plays depicted scenes from Bible or taught moral lessons
Interludes: Farcical entertainment for the wealthy spoofed the manners and customs of commoners
Latin and Greek Dramas: modeled characteristics of comedy and tragedy
Characteristics
Products of the Renaissance – they dealt with the complexities of human life on earth, rather than with religious themes
Staged at court, in the homes of wealthy, in inn yards until England’s first theaters were built
Psychological development, an inner life of characters revealed in soliloquies

5. PAUSE! Greek Drama
Greek playwrights establish the “rules” for both Comedy and Tragedy (see Aristotle)
Tragedy:
Someone famous/high up (usually king)
Falls from power as a result of hamartia (fatal flaw)
Play usually ends with the death of the tragic hero (and a lot of other characters)
FYI: Comedies aren’t necessarily funny – they just end in marriage rather than death
Most famous of Greek Tragedies: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

6. English Renaissance (1485-1660)
Humanists
Humanism – worth, importance of the individual; spiritual value of beauty in nature and in art; the power of human reason to decide what is good and right
Often devout Christians, they tried to reconcile the new ideas with their religious beliefs
Sharply critical of European society, especially the church, for falling short of the high ideals they encountered in classics, the Bible, and other sacred writings
Who should you know?
Sir Thomas More – author of Utopia (translates as “no where”)
George Chapman – translates Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey

7. English Renaissance (1485-1660)
Spiritual and Devotional Writings
King James Bible (completed in 1611)
John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Epic tale of the fall of Lucifer, the battle for power in heaven, his exile to earth, and his revenge in tempting Adam/Eve, and God’s eventual victory through Christ
Anti-hero, more compelling than the figure of Christ
Easily one of the most important, influential pieces of literature ever written
John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress
Allegory of Christian who undertakes a dangerous journey from this world to the next.
Encounters symbolic obstacles (Slough of Despond) and meets characters to help/hinder him (Mr. Moneylove, etc)

8. English Renaissance (1485-1660)
Cavalier Poets – took the side of Charles I in the English Civil War between Cromwell’s “roundheads” (named after their bowl haircuts) and the long-haired Royalist cavaliers
Lighthearted, charming, witty, and sometimes cynical
Themes of love, war, chivalry, loyalty
Carpe diem philosophy (YOLO) – usually used as a tool to seduce women
Metaphysical Poets
Broke with convention, employed unusual imagery, elaborate metaphors, irregular meter
Poems characterized by themes of death, physical love, and religious devotion
Tried to capture vastness of the universe and to explore life’s contradictions/complexities
Intellect and passion