Chapter II English Renaissance(1)

English Renaissance

Chapter IIEnglish Renaissance

English Renaissance

The Renaissance PeriodThe Renaissance: a transition from the Renaissance: medieval to the modern world Rediscovery: Rediscovery: ancient Greek and Roman culture New discovery: the gate to global trade discovery: and world power Religious Reformation: puritan ethics Reformation: and capitalist spirit unbound The beginning of English Renaissance: Renaissance: the rising of a nation-state and the nationflowering of a vernacular literature

English Renaissance

1. Renaissance as a TransitionThe Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world. world. Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries. It first started in midItaly, with the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature. From Italy the movement spread through the rest of Europe.

English Renaissance

The Renaissance, which means rebirth or revival of ancient classical Greek and Roman arts and culture, is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture, the new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic expansion.

English Renaissance

The Renaissance, therefore, in essence, is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.

English Renaissance

2. The Rebirth of the Classical Art

English Renaissance

Michelangelo (1475-1564) (1475-

English Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci (1452(14521519), Florentine artist, one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote of both his artistic and scientific endeavors. His innovations in the field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a century after his death, and his scientific studies— studies—particularly in the fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulics—anticipated hydraulics— many of the developments of modern science.

English Renaissance

English Renaissance

3. Religious ReformationIt is great 16th-century religious revolution in 16ththe Christian church, which ended the ecclesiastical supremacy of the pope in Western Christendom and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant churches. With the Renaissance that preceded and the French Revolution that followed, the Reformation completely altered the medieval way of life in Western Europe and initiated the era of modern history. The movement dates from the early 16th century, when Martin Luther first defied the authority of the church.

English Renaissance

4. The Beginning of English Renaissance(1) The eve of English Renaissance: a history of turmoil

English Renaissance

The Renaissance was slow in reaching England not only because of England's geographic separation from the Continent but also because of its domestic unrest.

English Renaissance

The century and a half following

the death of Chaucer is the most volcanic period of English history. The war-like nobles seized the warpower of England and turned it into selfselfdestruction. The Wars of Roses are examples to show how the energy of England was violently destroying itself. The frightful reign of Richard III marked the end of civil wars, making possible a new growth of English national feelings under the popular Tudors.

English Renaissance

(2) Henry VIII & Oxford’s initiationIt was not until the reign of Henry VIII (from 1509 to 1547) that the Renaissance really began to show its effect in England.

English Renaissance

With Henry VIII's encouragement, the Oxford reformers, scholars and humanists introduced classical literature to England. Education, based upon the classics and the Bible, was revitalized, and literature, already much read during the 15th century, became even more popular. Thus began the English Renaissance, which was perhaps England's Golden Age, especially in literature.

English Renaissance

(3) Features of English RenaissanceHumanism: the essence of Renaissance

Literature of a nation: the national feeling was on the rise Elizabethan drama: the mainstream of English Renaissance literature