 Welcome to today's program, Dear Learners. I am Pallavi Gugoy of KK Handeik State Open University. And in today's program, which I have titled, The Penisar, it is one of the movements which is very critical in the development of English, sorry, in the development of the history of English literature. I would like to start the program with a table of contents so that you know what to expect in the program. First, the objectives, followed by an introduction to the renaissance, which I have subdivided as humanists and humanism, protestant reformation, the context of England, and then the renaissance ideal, the renaissance man, and finally, winding up with a glance at literature and writers of English renaissance. So here are the objectives for today's program. The design program will enable you to discuss renaissance as a major period in the revival of learning, explain how the period of reformation and humanism stemmed from the renaissance, because these are very important parallel movements, as you will find, learn about the renaissance ideal and the renaissance man, and finally, appreciate the emergence of the renaissance from the medieval ages. I'm sure you have read about the medieval ages in the history of English literature, so this is a continuation from that, and in fact an emergence. So let us begin with the introduction to the renaissance. You must be facing sometimes the problem of understanding what this term exactly means. Actually, it's a term which in Italian means rebirth or to be reborn. In Italian, renazza is renacemento. So in English, the term renazza has been taken from the Italian term renacemento and refers to the birth of learning. So the renazza, as I said, is a cultural movement in Italy, which first began in Italy in the 14th century with renewed interests in the field of classical learning and spread about a century later to the other parts of Europe. We can just take out a map and look at how the whole continent, Europe, is spread out and how from Italy, starting from Italy, that is at the south of Europe, how it spread towards the north as a phenomenon. In fact, today renazza is likened to general enlightenment in the globalization context in a larger, wider frame. So it refers basically to the concept of enlightenment, enlightenment as in moving away from the previous age's shadow. So in fact, the renazza, although it took place in the 14th century in Italy and later came to England in the 16th century and in the modern period, enlightenment is knowledge as we know it. So it is basically a period where learning gained importance. Renazza is likened to the emergence of man into the light of knowledge of the new world from the assumptions of the dark ages. So the revival of classical antiquities started with the fall of the Byzantine Empire. The Greeks were known as the librarians of the world and when Constantinople was seized by the Ottoman Turks in history, as you will find, what had happened is that the Greeks, the Greek scholars had fled to Italy and made Italy their homeland and this is how they spread and disseminated their knowledge, especially the classical knowledge, which they were the ruins of. So the Greek and Roman classical models had reached Italy and engaged the Italian minds with an intense pursuit for the love of wisdom and knowledge. Now you will note the important contributions of the renazza where the invention of the printing press because the printing press was gaining ground and in a way, disseminating knowledge because there was circulation of varied materials and books were published and even though first it started with the immovable types of, you know, press, later on it by the movable press, printing press, enabled a larger production of books and other forms of reading materials which disseminated knowledge. Then modern navigation because now, unlike the earlier medieval ages economy, now the economy was changing because the world was spreading and there was much more knowledge of other parts of the world, which is why modern navigation had opened up to the newer world and you will mark that Italy was at base, that is, at the south and the seas were open and so they ventured out in the seas and this had brought about modern navigation in a big way and in fact all the European countries later on had explored the seas and other nations, discovered nations. Anyways, the next important point is that, the important contribution is that the new approach to the study of history and modern sciences, so these subjects were, you know, given more importance. The rise in industrial and commercial activities, like I said, because of navigation, because of trade, because of expanding trade, so there was a rise in industrial and commercial activities and the restructuring of the social classes because the social classes were now rising up and, you know, there was a change from the early ages, frame of society, so to say. So Giorgio Vasari had invented the term Renaissance in his book, Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptures from the Simba Queue to Our Own Times. Yes, it's a long name, but this is a very important work because the term Renaissance had come up in this work itself, so this was in 1550. In the words of an accomplished representative of the Italian Renaissance, that is Leon Battistai Alberti, you'll do well to remember these names, he had said that a man can do all things if he wills and this itself expresses their sense of the Renaissance ideal, the Renaissance man, which we'll come to in the later slides. The gifted people of the Renaissance sought an all-round development that's a holistic development in all the areas of knowledge, in the arts, emphasizing on physical growth and social accomplishments, so the intellectual and cultural movement of the Renaissance began in Italy in the late middle ages, spanning roughly from the 14th to 17th century and gradually spreading through the rest of Europe, like I said. So you'll know that this is not a confined movement and it was spreading out in a big way, so the torchbearers of knowledge were extending it and expanding the whole world, the whole world was their window, it was laid out for them to explore, to learn about. So reason in this particular time, reason and not religion as it was in the middle ages, a reason became the driving force in the search of defining their sense or the centrality of human beings in the Renaissance world, so man was important now, earlier it was more a God-centric world in the medieval ages, but now man was a center and as a whole the Renaissance could be viewed as an intellectual approach, intellectual that is in terms of knowledge, in terms of wisdom, in terms of learning, in studying the secular and the worldly, and mind you not the religious as in the previous age, through the revival of classical learning and the novel approaches to thought. So this brings us to the subsection, humanists and humanism, why? Because humanists or humanism itself implies that man was given centrality in the Renaissance world, humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape, humanism was more a method of learning and different from the medieval scholastic mode, humanists studied original ancient texts and assessed their values through the combination of reason and empirical evidence. Now you will do well to note that the study of humanitators was formulated based for humanist education by way of which the five humanities, subjects of humanities were given importance like poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy and rhetoric. So the great classical religious texts were promoted by humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus. Desiderius Erasmus was a very important figure in the Renaissance. It brings us to the parallel movement protested reformation, now you may be wondering what is protestant reformation, why protestant and why reformation, these two terms are very significant and you will do well to know that the protestant reformation was a parallel movement to the Renaissance. This paved the way for the 16th century protestant reformation which was initiated by Martin Luther and John Calvin and other protestant reformers, protestant because they had moved away from the earlier religious or Catholic church, they had moved away because they started questioning the 30 of the church in the lives of people, in society, in fact even their power over the crown. So the protestants what they did was they decided that it was time that we questioned these religious ideas, these religious doctrines and their dogmatic practices and bring change in the people's mindsets about religion as such. They emphasised on man, how man saw religion, how man through the study of the Bible itself, the Pope or instead of having some church decon anybody else mediate on their behalf. Because earlier you will know that the church was so dogmatic that did not let the Bible was not available to people at large and they were the ones who from the pulpits propagated religion, they even took up law and in a big way they had kind of subjugated society. Although the society then did not realise it because they were religiously blind but now the Renaissance mindset was such that they started questioning these very aspects. So the people they started protesting the fake doctrines, the rituals, the man practices within the church and the systemic corruption of the church is Roman hierarchy. That is why I say Roman hierarchy is because I refer to the Pope or the papacy. So now in today's context you will know that there are two main denominations the Catholics and the Protestants. So the Protestants were the ones who protested against the dogmatic practices of the Catholic church. So you will see this is a very modern way of looking at every aspect, at every institution and in fact the whole world, the way of looking at the world, it was wholly new, it was very different. The importance of this movement was huge because the centuries of religious faith, attitudes and beliefs were suddenly replaced by a new way of thinking. So it was a whole intellectual shift, so to say, a cultural, socio-cultural shift. The Protestantism had originated with Martin Luther's 95th thesis in Wittenberg. Now you may be wondering what is that? Actually Martin Luther was a German Protestant leader who had led this reformation movement. What he did was that he nailed on the church door of a Catholic church in Wittenberg. In the year 1517, his life was taken basically in 1521 because he stood up to protest. So this cause, the further spread of religious individualism, now it was no more a collective kind of an approach to the church, the religion and all kind of social-cultural practices. It was now individualistic, much like the modern age where things are more individualistic. So back then, in the 14th, 16th century, you will notice how they were already moving into the modern without knowing. Of course, we see this now from our point of view as early modern. But at that point of time, they were unconsciously, they were modern without really knowing that could be called modern. So this brings us to the context of England. England, because we are doing English literature and we take the context of England primarily for our study. The Renaissance which had reached already reached its peak in Italy in the early 16th century, which happened much later in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603. The English Renaissance note, that is roughly, these are just, these are not water type dates. You cannot really say that Renaissance began from exactly this particular year to this particular year. This is just a way of marking the movement from 1485 to 1660, a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th century to the early 17th century, brought the rapid growth of modern science, mathematics, astronomy and navigation. So the tradition of English literature gained strength and importance with the coming of the printing press by the late 16th century because the printing press in England came later on and John Caxton in England in a big way brought up the printing press. So all the Tudor Monarchs of the century were highly educated and so were most of the nobility. Queen Elizabeth was herself a product of Renaissance humanism and was trained by Roger Asher. So people were well educated and they were open to learning. The systems of learning had opened up in a big way, which in a way can be also called the early modern. Anyways, this brings us to the Renaissance ideal. Now you may be wondering what is the Renaissance ideal? Modern historians are of the opinion that the Renaissance, much a precursor of the characteristics of the modern period, constituted a multiplicity's culture, that is a culture which was heterogeneous, which was multiple in its forms. It was just not one particular culture that was the context. It was various different cultures taking place because of the opening of knowledge and opening of man's views and perceptions. These features include parallel protestant reformation, which I just talked about, the invention of new philosophy, new philosophical strands coming up, philosophers discussing new ways, new thoughts, etc. The Hermetic and Neoplatonic traditions, because Neoplatonic, because there were people like Marcellio Festino and Picodella Merandola who were Neoplatonists. They discussed the works of Plato. Like I said, the Renaissance ideal was also one which took into the context of the Greek classical learning or the ancient and classical treasures and incorporated them into their learning systems. All around development of art and culture took place, which is why it again defines their multiplicity's culture and the dissemination of the religious scriptures in all vernacular languages because this happened because this dissemination in the local languages, the vernacular languages happened because of the printing press itself. So you can see how these are parallel movements happening. One factor leading to the other, printing press and then again the Renaissance anyways taking place and then the reformation taking place and even the printing press helping in the spread of literature in a big way and again the printing press helping in the dissemination of the protests of the protestant leaders in a big way. So the printing press played a great role here. So the world was not closed anymore. It had just begun to open up instead of being shunken, instead of shinking it was now opening up in a big way. So according to the Renaissance ideal, humanists first of all had a rounded approach to education and the ideals for the Renaissance gentleman or coup d'oeuvre, one of the gentlemen who were in the courts etc. And according to the Renaissance ideal such a figure was expected, particularly the Renaissance gentleman, was expected to speak several languages, that is be a polyglot, play a musical instrument, write poetry, write horses, be physically active and do all kinds of things to be multi-talented, which is why again this brings us to the term multiplicity culture. So during this time the universities which were highly regarded did not specialize in specific areas but provided a broader education because it was just in the wake of the Enlightenment period. It was just happening, things were just getting shuffled up and there was this sudden shift from the medieval age to the Renaissance. So it was a gradual process, so universities were gradually opening up. It was not like it just suddenly happened out of the blue, this was a gradual process. So universities were offering broader education and after students received such an education they could choose to master a specific field. So they were first of all this all-round development was taken care of and then specifying particular interests was given importance. So what did it make, it made the Renaissance man. The Renaissance man represented a person who strived for excellence to develop his capacities as full as possible both mentally and physically. The common term Renaissance man is used to describe a person who is well educated and who excels in diverse fields and subjects. So Leon Battista Alberti said that a man can do if he will. So he himself, Alberti himself was gifted in many fields. He was a Roman Catholic priest, an architect, a sculpture, a painter, poet, scientist, mathematician, inventor, archer, skilled horseman. So he was multi-talented. So this is what it means to be the Renaissance man, to be an all-rounder in all fields, to strive for the best in all fields. The exemplary figures of the ideal Renaissance man were Leonardo da Vinci, I'm sure you must have heard about him, Michelangelo, Galileo, Copernicus, Francis Bacon, among others who excelled in multiple fields of humanities and sciences. With man as the center of the Renaissance world, like I said earlier, it traces how the Renaissance man evolved in diverse fields and every aspect. The Renaissance which highlights this period is transitional one, because transitional because it was a big shift, one leading to the modern world. So this is the first starting of the modern, like I said early modern. Thus the Renaissance movement marked a distinct shift from the medieval to the dark ages. So this brings us to the final glance at literature and writers of English Renaissance which we can explore in another program. So to list some of the important literary forms of the English Renaissance, that is travel writing. For example, Walter really wrote his ambitious, the history of the world. There was the form of pamphleteering, that is pamphlets written by writers like Thomas Decker, for example, Seven Deadly Saints of London. Then the early Tudor and Elizabethan poetry, poetry had flourished in a big way, like for example, White and Surrey's poetry, Edmund Spence's poetry, you can see the names are given here, Philip Sidney's poetry and there were many poets at this point of time and also there was a tradition of the sonnet, right? Philip Sidney had, Philip Sidney practiced this form and this is also, you know, inspired by Petrakan's form of the sonnet. The English sonnet was very different, Shakespearean sonnet was very different and very differently written. The short, crisp, it always contained a very different distinct ending, especially in the two last two lines of the poem, that is known as the couplet. Anyways, you will do well to, you know, to learn about these forms in details. This is just a brush up, the Elizabethan prose, for example, by Francis Bacon, you know, in a big way, Francis Bacon had brought up the form of essay writing also, so prose writing was very much in practice. Elizabethan drama, for example, Christopher Malo had written his Doctor Forsters and we cannot forget, we can never ever forget the tragedies and comedies of William Shakespeare, which you will do well to explore on your own. The 16th century was the golden age of English drama. To list some of the prominent literary figures of the English renaissance, you have Ben Johnson, Christopher Malo, Edwin Spencer, Francis Bacon, James Shirley, John Dunn, John Fletcher, John Ford, John Webster, Philip Missinger, Philip Sidney, Thomas Ticker, Thomas Kade, Thomas Moore, Thomas Nash, so many Thomases, Thomas Wyatt, William Rowley and William Shakespeare. So I'm wondering why is William Shakespeare the most important figure in English literature at this particular period of time, at the end, simply because this is just arranged in an alphabetical order. So we will explore these forms of writing and the writers and the works in another program. All the best to you with this I end today's program. Thank you dear. No, no?