Medieval and Renaissance Criticism PDF

Medieval and Renaissance Criticism An Introduction Dr Islam Aly El-Naggar Faculty of Arts 2024-2025 University Email: [email protected]  Before we start … Recap your information WHAT IS CRITICISM? WHAT IS THE CORE OF CRITICISM IN...

Medieval and Renaissance Criticism An Introduction Dr Islam Aly El-Naggar Faculty of Arts 2024-2025 University Email: [email protected]  Before we start … Recap your information WHAT IS CRITICISM? WHAT IS THE CORE OF CRITICISM IN THE CLASSICAL AGE? What are your expectations about this course? Medieval and Renaissance Criticism?  Medieval Criticism: Who? (Critics) What? (Object/s) How? (Methodology) and why? (the purpose of criticism)  Recap. - The World = Nature = (reality) - The Text = the Object/Literature (Genres) -The Critic and his Methodology (Aesthetics vs Lens) Textual Criticism*  1. Textual 2. Autobiographical/Historical/Ideological 3. Reader-Oriented Theories The Vitruvian man: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio's de Architectura The Vitruvian Man is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci  How does the Vitruvian Man represent humanism*? The circle and the square were long thought of as symbols of the divine and the earthly, respectively. The arrangement of the figure within the two shapes reflects the Renaissance humanist belief that the human body is a microcosm of the universe.  The Main Objectives of the Course In Medieval Criticism and Renaissance, what critics search for? What is/are the predominant literary genres in the medieval England? What is the predominant literary code(s) in medieval literature? What was the main function(s) of the critic in the medieval ages What was the core of criticism in the medieval ages? When we read medieval literature, what (elements/codes) we search for? And how we evaluate them synchronically and diachronically? What are the main conceptual framework* and critical terms employed in the medieval criticism?  Medieval Criticism: Critics(who), Object(s) (what), Methodology(how), and why? Humanizing influence in the Medieval age What is Secular … secularization of knowledge/criticism Canonization*/(Reconciliation*): The Destiny of Classical Criticism/knowledge (Plato & Aristotle). Hermeneutics vs Aesthetics Hermeneutics vs Exegesis Literary (and consequently critical) consciousness in the Medieval age: Literary Codes … Literary Genres. :(Chivalric, Moral, Religious, secular, beginning of the realistic code) Medieval criticism can be divided into five broad periods: 1. Late classical (1st century BC to 7th century AD). 2. Carolingian (8th AD century to 10th AD century). 3. High medieval (11th AD century to 12th AD century). 4. Scholastic (13th century to 14th century). 5. Humanist (14th century to 16th century). Medieval theory was based on divine plan in which the function of literature was supposed to help an individual to become a better Christian.  Historical Background England conquered by Normans* Battle of Hastings* in 1066 (defeated King Harold) Doomsday Book* (1086) Record of social conditions.  Hist. Normans Northmen French Influences Nationalism emerges. Nationalism: a combination of both independence and patriotism*.  Society Feudal system: all vassals of an overlord (rent-military service) Fixed class positions. Middle class emerges later.  Historical Context … Crusades Purpose to rescue Jerusalem from Turks* Advantages Exposed Britain to Arabic culture math, medicine. Commercial intellectual world broadened Encouraged CHIVALRY* Great Pilgrimages to shrines (Canterbury Tales by Chaucer as Representative … Early Beginnings of Secular Literature*)  Chivalric Code/Moral Code Norman (code of honor and courtly love) Purpose to make knight devout and well-mannered Concept of ideal- important to literature.  Language (Social Classes & Intellectual & Cultural) NORMAN FRENCH- ENGLISH- COMMON LATIN- CHURCH, COURT, NOBILITY PEOPLE UNIVERSITIES.  (Intellectual) Medieval Life (VI) Religion: Christendom … was important, dominance of one church [Roman Catholicism] in England Christendom: - Spiritual and cultural empire united all nations. Latin- common language in centers of learning Gothic Cathedrals* - Arts vs Literature: (search for their representation in Literature) Church controls money, land. Gothic Architecture?!  (Intellectual/Criticism) John Wycliffe* Translated the Bible in the 1380s Denounced as a heretic* (someone who hold unorthodox religious belief). To make Bible accessible to common people (Vernacular language)* Threatened authority of church.  (Intellectual) William Caxton* Introduced printing press to England around 1476. Printer, translator Made decision to reproduce the English of London. He and other printers began to standardize English  General Estimation of Medieval Criticism George Saintsbury* In his History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe* (1900–4), declared that ‘the Middle Ages were … certainly not Ages of Criticism J. W. H. Atkins, forty years later (about 1952*) In his English Literary Criticism: The Medieval Phase* challenged Saintsbury's claim But, he supposed that the period was ‘one of confused thinking in literary matters’. [NOT a Full-fledged Theory]