Renaissance literature?

Question

Does Renaissance literaure reflect any reigns during that time period?

Answer 1

The Rise of Printing: Literature in the Renaissance (1350-1550)
Summary
The spirit of the Renaissance was expressed in literature as well as art. The poetry of Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) powerfully expressed the principles of humanism extremely early in the budding Renaissance. Many scholars, in fact, date the beginning of the Renaissance to Petrarch's anointment as Poet Laureate. Giovanni Bocaccio stood at an almost similar stature as Petrarch. A Florentine, Bocaccio is most noted for writing the Decameron, a series of 100 stories set in Florence during the Black Death that struck the city in 1348. Boccaccio explores, in these stories, the traditions and viewpoints of various social classes, greatly based on actual observation and study.
Just as art and architecture flourished in the Renaissance, so too did literature. Ands similarly, just as art and architecture benefited from new techniques, literature experienced a massive boon from technology. In 1454, Johann Gutenberg published the Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed by a machine using moveable type. The moveable-type printing press vastly changed the nature of book publishing, simultaneously increasing printing volume and decreasing prices. The process of printing spread throughout Europe, and was used extensively in Italy, where the humanist writers of the Renaissance had long sought a way to more easily express their ideas to the public. During the Renaissance, writers produced a greater volume of work than ever before, and with the lower prices and increased numbers of texts, these works reached an audience of unprecedented size. Literature became a part of the lives of the larger public, not just the few elite able to afford books, as had been the case before the advent of the printing press.
Many Renaissance writers studied the works of the ancient Romans and Greeks, coming to new, modern conclusions based upon their studies. One such writer was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. In 1484, Pico, as he was known, became a member of Florence's Platonic Academy. There he studied and tried to reconcile the teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In 1486, he published a collection of 900 philosophical treatises, in which his conclusions often differed from those of the Roman Catholic Church. Pico's best known work, the "Oration on the Dignity of Man," describes his belief, contrary to church dogma, that people have free will and are able to make decisions affecting their destinies. Not surprisingly, the Church declared Pico a heretic; he was only saved from demise by the intervention of Lorenzo de Medici.
Niccolo Machiavelli rose to even greater literary prominence, and a prominence with a legacy more durable than Pico's. A Florentine statesment, Machiavelli rose to prominence during the Florentine Republic under Savonarola in 1498. After the Medici regained power in 1512, Machiavelli retired from government (involuntarily), moved to his estate outside Florence, and began to write. Convinced from his experiences in government that Italy could survive only if unified under a strong leader, in 1513, Machiavelli published The Prince, the best known piece of writing of the renaissance period. Perhaps also intended as a means to curry favor with the Medici leader of the moment, The Prince was intended as a guidebook for the eventual leader of all of Italy and as a reference for rulers everywhere. In its pages, Machiavelli argued that it was better for a leader to be feared than loved, and advocated that a "prince" should do anything necessary to maintain his power and achieve his goals.
Commentary
The Renaissance focus on learning and the invention of printing in Europe fed each other. The search for more accessible, cheaper books led to the invention and proliferation of the printing press, which, in turn, led to the wide institutionalization of literature as an essential aspect of Renaissance life. In the eleventh century, the Chinese had developed a system of movable type that a printer could use and reuse. It is uncertain whether Gutenberg and his colleagues knew of this process or not. In any case, the final result was the same--books no longer had to be produced by the long and arduous process of transcription. With the printing press, books could be produced quickly and in mass quantity. Before long, printing presses had been constructed and were widely in use throughout Europe, bringing the price of books down and allowing more and more authors to be published and read. The invention of the printing press was a major step toward bringing the Renaissance, long the province of the wealthy alone, to the middle classes. In turn, as literacy rose, the middle class became involved in the intellectual discourse of the times, and opportunities for middle class contributions to the canon of literature, while still fairly slim, grew. The power of literature to encompass many classes was demonstrated by the Decameron, in which Boccaccio explores the habits and morality of the various classes of Florence.
As in the realm of art, writers felt a great tension between progressive humanism and Church doctrine, a tension that sometimes grew to the point of conflict. Pico was not the only writer of the times to be declared a heretic, as many wrestled with the fact that the factual findings of science and the philosophical conclusions of humanism did not correspond with the teachings of the Church. This undercurrent of dissent can be seen in many works throughout the Renaissance but is perhaps demonstrated in its clearest and most blatant form in Pico's "Oration on the Dignity of Man." Pico believed that man had free will and could make decisions, and that the study of philosophy prepared man to recognize the truth and make better decisions. He also believed that each individual could commune directly with God, and that the priesthood had falsely claimed this singular power. Pico's ideas, along with the arguments of others, became central to Protestant thought during the Reformation.
Pico's experience demonstrates the continuing power of the Church over expression during the Renaissance. However, it also demonstrates the current of power which rose to rival this continuing power, in the form of Lorenzo de Medici, whose intervention saved Pico from exile and perhaps even death. Lorenzo was the consummate politician and patron of the arts, a wealthy power player considered to be one of the most influential men in the world. His intervention on behalf of Pico shows that due to his place in the Renaissance world, which centered on the rise of commerce and the simultaneous rise in arts and literature, he was capable of influencing the most powerful and rigid institution in the world, the Catholic Church. This says much about the changing balance of power in the Renaissance.
Niccolo Machiavelli's writing, while it did not earn him condemnation as a heretic, was nonetheless novel and controversial. The Prince clearly hammers home the concept that a ruler must be strong and awe-inspiring in order to be successful. It argued for the consolidation of power by any means possible. European rulers have, for centuries, consulted The Prince as a handbook, and it is often said to have had more influence on modern politics than any other work. With the publication of his book Machiavelli's fame and infamy grew to such extents that his own name became a term: ruthless, calculating antagonists of literature and drama quickly became known as Machiavellian villains.

Elizabethan Literature
Summary
England prospered in the second half of Elizabeth's reign, and many of the great works of English literature were produced during these years: art, poetry, drama, and learning in general flourished as the confidence and nationalism Elizabeth inspired spilled from the economic sector to cultural achievements. Elizabeth's reign saw playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, poets like Edmund Spenser, and men of science and letters like Francis Bacon. The era also saw the beginning of William Shakespeare's work. Many of the writers, thinkers and artists of the day enjoyed the patronage of members of Elizabeth's court, and their works often involved or referred to the great Queen; indeed, she was the symbol of the day. The "Elizabethan Age," generally considered one of golden ages in English literature, was thus appropriately named: these cultural achievements did not just happen to be created while Elizabeth was on the throne; rather, Elizabeth's specific actions, her image, and the court atmosphere she nurtured significantly influenced--even inspired--great works of literature.
From the beginning of her reign, Elizabeth was always a major patron of the stage, and drama flourished under her support. In the 1560s, the first blank verse tragedies appeared, ultimately giving rise to an art form that remains heavily studied today. In 1562, one of the earliest of these blank verse plays, Gorboduc, was performed for the Queen.
Initially, a certain amount of class conflict arose over the production of plays, as the puritanical Elizabethan middle class tried to shut down the London theaters on the basis of their "immorality." Thus, under major pressure, the Mayor of London attempted to close all of the city's theaters in 1580. The Privy Council, citing Elizabeth's fondness for plays, prevented this measure from taking place, although they did allow the crowded theaters to be shut down in times of epidemics. Elizabeth, who liked to invite theater companies to her palaces, was against shutting down the theaters because she wanted them to have fully practiced their plays before bringing them to her. As a result, plays became more socially respectable, and by the 1570s and 1580s, exclusive boys' schools like St. Paul's and Merchant Taylor's integrated the performance of both English and Latin plays into their curriculum, initiating the custom of the school play. The Queen even watched some of these school plays herself. In 1595, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream was performed at Greenwich palace during the marriage celebration of Burleigh's granddaughter. The play contained several references to Elizabeth and her court, especially to the water-pageant Leicester had put on for Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle in 1575. Then at Christmastime while Essex was gone on the campaign in Ireland, Elizabeth saw a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
Elizabeth herself was known for being a very good dancer and a particularly talented musician. Although she only played for her closest friends, she spent considerable time perfecting her renditions of several of the more difficult pieces of the day. Once her practicing was overheard by an envoy from Mary Queen of Scots who, much to Elizabeth's pleasure, admitted that Mary Stuart, though "good for a Queen", was not nearly the musician Elizabeth was.
Edmund Spenser, whose patron was none other than Leicester himself, often drew from the lives of the big celebrities of the day as subject matter for his poems. In a 1579 poem, for instance, he subtly hints at Leicester's secret marriage to Elizabeth's cousin, Lettice Knollys. Spenser's famous Faerie Queene contains multiple references to Elizabeth, who appears allegorically as several characters, including the Faerie Queene herself. Other international figures, including Philip II, Alencon, Mary Queen of Scots, and Leicester are represented as well.
Commentary
It may seem odd that the Mayor of London so opposed the theater houses: in our own day, drama is considered a bastion of high culture; indeed, many people prefer TV or movies, as they contain more "action," more sensation and excitement; why would anyone want to ban the comparatively staid and civilized genre of theatrical drama? In the Elizabethan age, however, plays were the TV or movies of the time. In a day when there was not much entertainment, drama provided one of the few avenues of diversion and was wildly popular. Because the lower-class masses were illiterate, plays appealed especially to them. Thus, tension over the theaters revolved around a class conflict: the well-to-do middle class, obsessed with hard work and religion, hated plays, viewing them as a source of idleness. Moreover, because the lower classes often skipped church in order to arrive early to the theatres and secure a good view of the stage, the middle classes deemed the theatres ungodly. In fact, the situation regarding Elizabethan plays is not unlike the current state of affairs in the modern United States, where various groups busily blame many social ills on violence and other inappropriate behavior seen on TV. The Elizabethan middle classes and their religious spokespeople thought the violence and inappropriate behavior seen in the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare would twist the minds and behavior of the population, leading them to violence and vice. Today, of course, these plays are considered among the greatest literary works of all time.
The commoners, however, had an ally in Elizabeth and her court. The leisured aristocratic classes had plenty of free time to fill, and most found plays delightful. Elizabeth was particularly fond of inviting theater companies to perform at her palaces during holidays, and these performances increased the theatre companies' repute. The dramatic presentations before the royal court became an important social event, and Elizabeth even proudly brought ministers from other countries to see them, in order to show off the achievements of English culture. Elizabeth, never the religious fanatic, refused to listen to the Mayor of London's claims that playwrights and actors were God's enemies. Yet the middle class never warmed to the theatre, and this gave playwrights a unique audience with which to contend: rather than writing for people of a continuous spectrum of backgrounds, they were writing for two groups separated by a huge gulf, the lower-class commoners and aristocracy. The plays thus have plots that could be appreciated by the relatively unschooled "groundlings," (those who could not afford real seats stood on the ground in front of the stage), but also are filled with allusions and literary references to delight the well-educated aristocracy of Elizabeth's court. This complexity of audience is part of the reason for the depth and complexity of the Elizabethan plays.
Edmund Spenser's poetry today seems a description of impossible fantasy scenes. However, a major inspiration for these faerie realms was the glittering splendor he saw in Elizabeth's court. We might also think that his emphasis on knights and jousting is another manifestation of fantasy; yet these, too, had their basis in Elizabeth's court: although gunpowder had put an end to the era of armored knights carrying lances on horseback in real battles, jousting and tournaments were much alive as forms of entertainment for Elizabeth and her aristocracy.

Answer 2

The name itself implies a rebirth of American literature out of Harlem, NY. It was heavily influenced by jazz music with it's inconsistent rhythm and tempo, and it relied heavily on the influence of folklore. The idea of "twoness" as an everyday culture was also a common theme in many of the works of the era. They were torn between two identities: their proud and rick black culture and the accepted classes and customs of white America. Blacks had their freedom guaranteed to them, however, they struggled because they were still not seen as equal. Whites only accepted them if they acted "white" so they had difficulty accepting their new culture and still paying homage to their past. Their language, style, fashion, and traditions were out of sync with the white community so they were not truly accepted into society. They were free but not free to be themselves. For if they were they were just alienated more. Some great writers of the Harlem Renaissance are Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Hughes especially wrote about how America belonged to all, not just the privileged races and how it should be turned over to all its citizens. Try reading "Let America Be America Again" for that theme. For more "jazz" influenced poetry read "Harlem" "Life is Fine" or "Juke Box Love Song."

Answer 3

Shakespeare wrote a play called Richard III, but that was more in the Middle Ages.