Early Modern Period: New Worlds- New Horizons Flashcards
Early Modern Period
- Renaissance
> literary studies prefer Early Modern Period - Reformation
> of the church, protestants left the main Christian church behind
Renaissance und Humanism
- Rediscovery of Antiquity in learning (scholasticism and humanism), architecture and the arts
- begin in the 13th-century in Italy and is diffused in Europe over centuries
- Leonardo da Vinci, Italian, 1490 - defines man as the measure of architecture rediscovered drom before Christ
Human beings in the Modern Period
- the four biles
> there should be balance, if one exceeds the other it influences the personality/ character/ temperament - Representative for malice (e.g. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales - through implicit criticism of classes)
- “cognitio ergo sum” René Descartes (1641)
> banned, radical: Catholics were not allowed to read it
> Humankind puts itself at the centre of the universe
The four biles/ humours
- yellow bile > choleric: ambitious, aggressive
- blood > sanguine: passionate, optimistic
- phlegm > phlegmatic: thoughtful, reasonable, calm, lazy
- black bile > melancholic: depressed, quiet
What event triggers the English reformation?
- English Reformation
The king wanted to get divorced from his wife, he became head of the church
> act of surpremacy in 1534
Time Line
- English Reformation
- 1517: Martin Luther’s 95 Theses
- 1527: Beginning of Henry VIII’s struggle with Rome over the annulment of his marriage with Chathrine of Aragon
- 1534: Act of Supremacy (Break with Rome) - the British king declares himself as the head of the church
1536 - 1540: Dissolution of Monasteries
Iconoclasm
> recherchieren, macht keinen Sinn
- Church looks significantly different
- white-washing of the entire country
Abolition of Purgatory
- Purgatory = Vorhölle, praying for heaven
- Protestants therefore either go to hell or heaven, no purgatory
- Fundamental change about what happens to you after death, people were scared > turmoil
Thomas Platter in London (1599)
- bullet points
Theatre in Early Modern London
- the first entertainment hub in Europe, since Rome
Thomas Platter in London
- Content
- Tourists in London
- Attraction of Theatre
> Invests in customers
> Stages were usually the same, not lots of probs
> Learning in play, what happens abroad - few people could read, there were no newspapers - Alternative entertainments: cock fights, bear baiting
A New World
- Columbus > Letter regarding the first voyage
- Colonial discourse
- Sense of entitlement
- European sense superiority
- Categorisation and systematization of new experiences
= eurocentric - Captain John smith
> bring christianity to the “poor” (at the same time making money from them)
> Negotiating, natives described as giants and Britains small (we against them, we good they bad)
The Tempest - Willam Shakespeare (1620)
Days’ events
- The tempest, shipwreck and washing up on shore of the royal party.
- Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love.
- Ferdinand convinces Prospero that his love for Miranda is true.
- Antonio and Sebastian plot regicide.
- Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano plot the murder of Prospero.
- Alonso repents for his crime against Prospero.
- A marriage is arranged.
- The plotters are forgiven.
- Ariel is freed. Caliban is left to control his island.
- The ship is found to be seaworthy and the party prepares to leave for Milan.
https://youtu.be/qoSStmQuisM?si=TfbdCpGuwV7IXTLh
Dramatic Conventions and concepts
Aristotele’s Unities
- Unity of Action
- Unity of Time
- Unity of Place
> not all plays stick to these unities
Shakespeare uses the theory of Aristotele’s dramatic unities in ‘the tempest’
Unity of Action
(Aristotele)
> every part is important to the outcome and effect of the play
revenge on the “three men of sin”
