CLC 3341F
Renaissance Literature and Culture
J. Miller
May 20, 2015
WESTERN UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES (UC 115)
CLC 3341F – Renaissance Literature and Culture
Fall (1st semester) 2015
Instructor: James Miller (jmiller@uwo.ca)
Time: Tues (1:30-3:20) and Thurs (1:30-2:20)
Office hours: by appt (Pride Library)
Location: TBA
Course Description
The triumph of Venus in the springtime of the world (from the “April” fresco at the Palazzo
Schifanoia in Ferrara) reveals how the Renaissance charmingly pictured itself, or wanted itself to
be pictured in later, darker times: as a Golden Age of sweetness and light, peace and harmony,
beauty and love. This introductory course will explore the intellectual origins, cultural
ramifications, and blatant ironies of the myth of the Renaissance as the rebirth of classical
wisdom and creativity in Western Europe after the Middle Ages. If the Renaissance truly was a
"rebirth," then what was magnificently reborn ─ or mercilessly killed off ─ to produce such a
time of efflorescence (ca. 1300-1600)? The myth of Love in the Golden Age will provide a
preliminary focus for considering how an early kind of modernity emerged from audacious
humanist reactions to medieval pessimism about the fallen human condition. Three different
trends within humanism as a Western intellectual movement will be explored through a variety
of literary works, architectural monuments, paintings and sculptures: (1) the revival of Platonic
idealism; (2) the revival of pagan hedonism; and (3) the revival of Late Antique skepticism.
Each of these revivals gave rise to a different kind of Renaissance: the first to the Symposiastic
Renaissance of courteous banquets, artistic competitions, and amorous allegories; the second to
the Scandalous Renaissance of madcap fantasies, blasphemous satires, and epicurean erotica; and
the third to the Skeptical Renaissance of cosmological revolutions, radical political theories, and
magical apocalypses.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students are expected to have acquired:
(1) a basic understanding of the notion of cultural “rebirth” as illustrated by the strategic reappropriation of classical learning in Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries;
(2) a firm grounding in the intellectual history of the Renaissance from Florentine Academicism
and its later Italian offshoots (Castiglionian ethics, Machiavellian politics) to Northern European
Christian Humanism in its many varieties (Erasmian rationalism, Rabelaisian Pantagruelism,
Montaignean Pyrrhonism, Shakespearean individualism);
(3) an introductory grasp of key terms in Renaissance cultural history such as “Quattrocento,”
“paragone,” “procession and return,” “genius,” “masque,” “pastoral,” and “the Carnivalesque,”
(4) a practised ability to apply theories of interpretation to brief non-theoretical literary texts (e.g.
lyrical poems, dramatic speeches, prose paragraphs);
(5) an informed awareness of the potential applicability of humanist literary theory to the visual
and performing arts;
(6) an enhanced confidence in the interdependent skills of critical reading, systematic thinking,
and clear expository writing.
Grade Breakdown
1.
2.
3.
4.
Midterm Test…………..20%
Class Presentation……..10%
Essay…………………..20%
Final Examination……..50%
 learning outcomes #1, 2, 3
 learning outcomes #1,2, 3, 4, 5
 learning outcomes #3, 4, 5, 6
 learning outcomes #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Required Texts
On Order from the Bookstore
1. Margaret L. King, The Renaissance in Europe [2nd edition]
ISBN-10: 1856693740 / 13: 978-1856693745
2. Plato, Symposium
ISBN- 10: 0140449272 / 13: 978-0140449273
3. Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier
ISBN-10: 0393976068 / 13: 978-0393976069
4. Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
ISBN-10: 0393957497 / 13: 978-0393957495
5. Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel [book two only: Gargantua]
ISBN-10: 0140445501 / 13: 978-0140445503
6. Machiavelli, The Prince
ISBN-10: 0393962202 / 13: 978-0393962208
7. Shakespeare, The Tempest
ISBN-10: 0140714855 / 13: 978-0140714852
Online Texts
8. Montaigne, Essays [selections: TBA]
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm
9. Bruno, The Ash-Wednesday Supper
https://math.dartmouth.edu/~matc/Readers/renaissance.astro/6.1.Supper.html
Coursepack Texts
10. Ficino, On Love: Commentary on Plato’s Symposium [excerpts]
11. Vignali, The Book of the Prick [excerpts]
13. Edgar Wind, “Botticelli’s Primavera.” Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance [ch.7]
Policy on Written Assignments
The Faculty of Arts & Humanities does not permit faculty members to accept written
assignments after the last teaching day of the term.
Contact
James Miller
UC 351 (Office) or The Pride Library (Weldon Mainfloor)
ex 85828 (UWO) 519-673-0234 (Home)
jmiller@uwo.ca
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a major academic offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in the Western Academic
Calendar). Plagiarism is the inclusion of someone else's verbatim or paraphrased text in one's own
written work without immediate reference. Verbatim text must be surrounded by quotation marks or
indented if it is longer than four lines. A reference must follow right after borrowed material (usually
the author's name and page number). Without immediate reference to borrowed material, a list of
sources at the end of a written assignment does not protect a writer against a possible charge of
plagiarism. This also applies to work facilitated or written for students by third parties.
Absenteeism
Students seeking academic accommodation on medical grounds for any missed tests, exams,
participation components and/or assignments must apply to the Academic Counseling office of their
home Faculty and provide documentation. Academic accommodation cannot be granted by the
instructor or department.
N.B. E-mail will be used extensively for communication with the students. Please make sure your
UWO account is in order.
Schedule of Topics and Readings
Week One: The Trecento
Thu Sept 10: introductory lecture  When did the Renaissance begin?
PART ONE: THE SYMPOSIASTIC RENAISSANCE
Week Two: Classical Platonic Love Theory
Tue Sept 15: Plato, Symposium
Thu Sept 17: Plato, Symposium [Socrates’s speech]
Week Three: Florentine Neoplatonism (1): Philosophical Illuminations
Tue Sept 22: Ficino, On Love
Thu Sept 24: Ficino, On Love
Week Four: Florentine Neoplatonism (2): Artistic Visions
Tue Sept 29: Botticelli, Primavera, Mystic Nativity
Thu Oct 1: Botticelli, Birth of Venus, Mars and Venus
Week Five: The Courtesy Tradition
Tue Oct 6: Castiglione, Il Cortegiano
Thu Oct 8: Castiglione, Il Cortegiano [Cardinal Bembo’s speech]
______________________________________________________________________________
PART TWO: THE SCANDALOUS RENAISSANCE
Week Six: Epistemological Statire
Tue Oct 13: Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
Thu Oct 15: Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
Week Seven: Erotic Satire
Tue Oct 20: Vignali, La Cazzaria
Thu Oct 22: Vignali, La Cazzaria
Week Eight: Pedagogical Satire (1)
Tue Oct 27: MIDTERM [hour 1]; Rabelais, Gargantua [hour 2]
Thu Oct 29: No Class – Fall Study Break
Week Nine: Pedagogical Satire (2)
Tue Nov 3: Rabelais, Gargantua
Thu Nov 5: Rabelais, Gargantua
______________________________________________________________________________
PART THREE: THE SKEPTICAL RENAISSANCE
Week Ten: Political Self-Fashioning
Tue Nov 10: Machiavelli, The Prince
Thu Nov 12: Machiavelli, The Prince
Week Eleven: Cosmological Re-Fashioning
Tue Nov 17: Bruno, The Ash-Wednesday Supper
Thu Nov 19: Bruno, The Ash-Wednesday Supper
Week Twelve: Melancholic Solitude
Tue Nov 24: Montaigne, Essays
Thu Nov 26: Montaigne, Essays
Week Thirteen: Revels Ended
Tue Dec 1: Shakespeare, The Tempest
Thu Dec 3: Shakespeare, The Tempest
_____________________________________________________________________________
Week Fourteen: CONCLUSIONS
Tue Dec 8:  When did the Renaissance end? ESSAY DUE