HISTORY OF

LITERARY
THEORY AND
CRITICISM:
THE RENAISSANCE
Nikola Novaković, Ph.D.
 SECULARIZATION OF INTERPRETATION

• 14th ct. > involved secularization in subject matter and in interpretation

• Interpretive methods for the Bible > applied to secular texts; and to construction of
original and secular literature
• The Divine Comedy > polysemous
• > radical idea: adopting polysemy from theology! > comparing his writings to the
word of God
• The Divine Comedy > four levels: literal; allegorical; moral; spiritual (soul's journey)
 HUMANISM

• From the 14th ct. > rebith, revival

• Humanism: movement to revive the study of ancient Greek and Roman classics
• Began in Italy (14th ct.), spread across Europe; Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch
• Political theorist N. Machiavelli, classical scholar Desiderius Erasmus
• Humanists > study of earthly matters; shift away from religiosity of medieval scholarship, art,
literature
• Combined classical era and Christian ideas
• Today: humanities – broad group of academic disciplines devoted to the study of arts and culture
• > languages, literature, philosophy, history…
 IMPORTANT EVENTS: PRINTING

• The printing press; 1450, Johannes Gutenberg

• > wider distribution of the Bible
• > wider distribution of the classics (original and translation)
• > mass reproduction of medieval manuscripts
• > printing of school books: grammar books, editions of the classics, religious
catechisms
• 1476, William Caxton, first printing press in England
 IMPORTANT EVENTS: PROTESTANTISM

• 16th ct. Protestant Reformation

• 1575 Martin Luther, Ninety-Five Theses; protested about the abuses of the Catholic Church
• > encouraged his followers to read the Bible for themselves
• > importance of individual faith over doctrine taught by authority figures
• > Lutheranism; Calvinism (John Calvin); Presbyterianism
• Church of England vs. the Pope; Anglicanism
• Reformation extended developments of Renaissance
• > emphasized importance of reading and interpretation
 IMPORTANT EVENTS: VERNACULAR

• Roman Empire: Latin

• Remained language of learning, writing > literary, philosophical, scientific works
(into the 17th ct.)
• From the Middle Ages: growing defense of writing in native languages
• Dante, On Eloquence in the Vernacular (1302)
• One area where vernacular composition was thriving > oral folk poetry
• French troubadours, English minstrels, Irish bards (Middle Ages)
 NEW FORMS

• Many new or revived genres flourished in the Renaissance

• > historical factors: invention of printing, renewed interest in classics
• > tragedy (Greek and Roman models); W. Shakespeare, C. Marlowe, B. Jonson
• > comedy
• > sonnet: 14 lines, set rules for rhyme scheme and meter
• > epic (models: Homer and Virgil); John Milton's Paradise Lost
• > essay: popularized by Montaigne; Francis Bacon
• > pastoral poetry
 NEW RULES FOR WRITING

• Neoclassical approach to literature: inspired by classical models

• Influenced new works, direction of literary criticism
• Pierre Corneille's essay "Of the Three Unities of Action, Time, and Place" (1660)
• > unity of action (Aristotle's Poetics): a single plotline with beginning, middle, end;
discouraged digressions, subplots…
• > unity of time (again, Aristotle): action should take place within 24-hour span
• > unity of place: plays must take place in one location