LIT 302 Origins and Originalities: Literary Masterpieces of the Renaissance (Same as French 308) (Not offered 1998-99; to be offered 1999-2000)

The literary culture of the sixteenth century was shaped by two intersecting ideas: first, that books have the power to refashion an absent past and make it seem less remote; second, that through this process of renewal, writers create liberating structures, works which set themselves apart radically from their own sources. This tendency to simultaneously look back and look forward-to renovate and innovate-is the defining mode of Renaissance literary discourse. The result is an age richly exciting in the way it articulates its view of the world. The course will trace the main features of this double vision in selected readings from six major authors: Erasmus, Machiavelli, Castiglione, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Shakespeare. Among the areas to be examined will be the shift from oral to printed culture, concepts of language, genre, and rhetoric, historical and socio-political forces, education, the visual arts, and humanism. Lecture and discussion. All readings in English. Requirements: class participation, a midterm, and a final paper.