Renaissance literature

{{Short description|European literature influenced by the Renaissance}} {{See also|Renaissance}} {{refimprove|date=July 2013}} {{Renaissance}}

'''Renaissance literature''' refers to [[European literature]] which was influenced by the intellectual and cultural tendencies associated with the [[Renaissance]]. The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general movement of the Renaissance, which arose in 14th-century [[Italy]] and continued until the mid-17th century in [[England]] while being diffused into the rest of the western world.<ref name="Baldick">{{cite encyclopedia |surname=Baldick |given=Chris |authorlink=Chris Baldick |entry=Renaissance (Renascence) |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms |edition=4th |format=Online Version |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191783234 |entry-url= https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443-e-152?rskey=TFSAGB&result=991 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> It is characterized by the adoption of a [[Renaissance humanism|humanist philosophy]] and the recovery of the classical Antiquity. It benefited from the spread of printing in the latter part of the 15th century.

==Overview== For the writers of the Renaissance, [[Greek-Roman]] inspiration was shown both in the themes of their writing and in the literary forms they used. The world was considered from an [[Anthropocentrism|anthropocentric]] perspective. Platonic ideas were revived and put to the service of [[Christianity]]. The search for pleasures of the senses and a critical and rational spirit completed the ideological panorama of the period. New literary genres such as the essay ([[Montaigne]]) and new metrical forms such as the [[Spenserian stanza]] made their appearance.

The impact of the Renaissance varied across the continent; countries that were predominantly [[Catholic]] or [[Protestant]] experienced the Renaissance differently. Areas where the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] was culturally dominant, as well as those areas of Europe under [[Islamic]] rule, were more or less outside its influence. The period focused on self-actualization and one's ability to accept what is going on in one's life.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}

The earliest Renaissance literature appeared in Italy in the 14th century; [[Petrarch]], [[Machiavelli]], and [[Ariosto]] are notable examples of Italian Renaissance writers. From Italy, the influence of the Renaissance spread at different times to other countries and continued to spread around Europe through the 17th century. The [[English Renaissance]] and the [[Renaissance in Scotland]] date from the late 15th century to the early 17th century.<ref name="Baldick" /> In northern Europe, the scholarly writings of [[Erasmus]], the plays of William Shakespeare, the poems of Edmund Spenser, and the writings of Sir Philip Sidney may be considered Renaissance in character.

The development of the [[Printing Press|printing press]] (using movable type) by [[Johannes Gutenberg]] in the 1440s encouraged authors to write in their local [[vernacular]] instead of [[Greek language|Greek]] or [[Latin language|Latin]] [[classical language]]s, thus widening the reading audience and promoting the spread of Renaissance ideas.

==Major authors== Significant writers and poets associated with the Renaissance literature are:

Italian: [[Petrarch]], [[Giovanni Boccaccio]], [[Jacopo Sannazaro]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], [[Bernardo Dovizi]], [[Ludovico Ariosto]], [[Michelangelo]]

Croatian and Hungarian: [[Janus Pannonius]], [[Bálint Balassi]]

Portuguese: [[Jorge de Montemor]], [[Luís de Camões]]

Spanish: [[Baptista Mantuanus]], [[Miguel de Cervantes]], [[John of the Cross]], [[Garcilaso de la Vega (poet)|Garcilaso de la Vega]], [[Juan Boscán Almogáver]], [[Fernando de Rojas]]

French: [[François Rabelais]], [[Marguerite de Navarre]], [[Clément Marot]], [[Bonaventure des Périers]]

German: [[Sebastian Brant]], [[Conrad Celtes]], [[Thomas Murner]], [[Ulrich von Hutten]], [[Hans Sachs]], [[Friedrich Dedekind]], [[Johann Fischart]], [[Georg Rudolf Weckherlin]]

Dutch: [[Erasmus]]

English: [[Thomas Wyatt (poet)|Thomas Wyatt]], [[Edmund Spenser]], [[Philip Sidney]], [[William Shakespeare]]

Scottish: [[Walter Kennedy (poet)|Walter Kennedy]], [[Robert Henryson]], [[William Dunbar]], [[Gavin Douglas]], [[David Lyndsay]], [[Iseabail Ní Mheic Cailéin]], [[George Buchanan]], [[Alexander Scott (16th-century poet)|Alexander Scott]], [[Alexander Montgomerie]], [[James VI and I|James VI]], [[Elizabeth Melville]], [[William Drummond of Hawthornden]]

Polish: [[Mikołaj Rej]], [[Klemens Janicki]], [[Jan Kochanowski]]

==See also== * [[Allegory in Renaissance literature]] * [[British literature#The Renaissance]] ** [[Elizabethan literature]] ** [[English Renaissance theatre]] * [[Renaissance in Croatia]] * [[Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age literature]] * [[French Renaissance literature]] * [[German literature#German Renaissance and Reformation]] * [[Italian literature#16th century: the High Renaissance|Italian Renaissance literature]] * [[Polish literature#Renaissance|Polish Renaissance literature]] * [[Portuguese Renaissance]] and [[Portuguese literature#First classical phase: The Renaissance]] * [[Literature in early modern Scotland|Scottish Renaissance literature]] * [[Spanish Renaissance literature]] * [[Swedish literature#Renaissance literature|Swedish Renaissance literature]]

===Literature by century=== * [[15th century in literature]] * [[16th century in literature]]

===Poetry by century=== * [[15th century in poetry]] * [[16th century in poetry]]

==References== <references />

==Further reading== * {{cite book |surname=Sypher |given=Wylie |authorlink=Wylie Sypher |title=Four Stages of Renaissance Style: Transformations in Art and Literature, 1400–1700 |year=1955 |place=Garden City, NY |publisher=Doubleday}}

==External links== *{{Commonscatinline|Renaissance literature}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130802030521/http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=1163 General Resources in the Renaissance & 17th Century]

[[Category:Renaissance literature| ]]