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 The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–1486) byBotticelli |
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Renaissance literature refers toEuropean literature which was influenced by the intellectual and cultural tendencies associated with theRenaissance. The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general movement of the Renaissance, which arose in 14th-centuryItaly and continued until the mid-17th century inEngland while being diffused into the rest of the western world.[1] It is characterized by the adoption of ahumanist philosophy and the recovery of the classical Antiquity. It benefited from the spread of printing in the latter part of the 15th century.
For the writers of the Renaissance,Greek-Roman inspiration was shown both in the themes of their writing and in the literary forms they used. The world was considered from ananthropocentric perspective. Platonic ideas were revived and put to the service ofChristianity. The search for pleasures of the senses and a critical and rational spirit completed the ideological panorama of the period. New literary genres such as the essay (Montaigne) and new metrical forms such as theSpenserian stanza made their appearance.
The impact of the Renaissance varied across the continent; countries that were predominantlyCatholic orProtestant experienced the Renaissance differently. Areas where theEastern Orthodox Church was culturally dominant, as well as those areas of Europe underIslamic rule, were more or less outside its influence. The period focused on self-actualization and one's ability to accept what is going on in one's life.[citation needed]
The earliest Renaissance literature appeared in Italy in the 14th century;Petrarch,Machiavelli, andAriosto are notable examples of Italian Renaissance writers. From Italy, the influence of the Renaissance spread at different times to other countries and continued to spread around Europe through the 17th century. TheEnglish Renaissance and theRenaissance in Scotland date from the late 15th century to the early 17th century.[1] In northern Europe, the scholarly writings ofErasmus, the plays of William Shakespeare, the poems of Edmund Spenser, and the writings of Sir Philip Sidney may be considered Renaissance in character.
The development of theprinting press (using movable type) byJohannes Gutenberg in the 1440s encouraged authors to write in their localvernacular instead ofGreek orLatinclassical languages, thus widening the reading audience and promoting the spread of Renaissance ideas.
Significant writers and poets associated with the Renaissance literature are:
Italian:Petrarch,Giovanni Boccaccio,Jacopo Sannazaro,Niccolò Machiavelli,Ludovico Ariosto,Michelangelo
Hungarian:Janus Pannonius,Bálint Balassi,Antonio Bonfini,John Vitéz,Andreas Pannonius,István Werbőczy,Ferenc Dávid
Portuguese:Jorge de Montemor,Luís de Camões
Spanish:Baptista Mantuanus,Miguel de Cervantes
French:François Rabelais
Dutch:Erasmus
English:Thomas Wyatt,Edmund Spenser,Philip Sidney,William Shakespeare
German:Georg Rudolf Weckherlin
Media related toRenaissance literature at Wikimedia Commons