This document provides an overview of major movements in European literature and art from ancient times to modernism. It discusses the following periods and their defining characteristics:
1. Ancient World - Literature originated in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and included religious texts and epics like the Iliad and Odyssey. Major critics included Plato and Aristotle.
2. Middle Ages - Literature was dominated by the Christian church and included religious writings, romances, and works like Dante's Divine Comedy and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
3. Renaissance - Marked a shift from medieval theology to an interest in classical works and humanism. Major works included those by Shakespeare and Milton.
4. Classicism
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4. Literature Religion and Art in Europe an Interdisciplinary Approach.ppt
This document provides an overview of major movements in European literature and art from ancient times to modernism. It discusses the following periods and their defining characteristics:
1. Ancient World - Literature originated in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and included religious texts and epics like the Iliad and Odyssey. Major critics included Plato and Aristotle.
2. Middle Ages - Literature was dominated by the Christian church and included religious writings, romances, and works like Dante's Divine Comedy and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
3. Renaissance - Marked a shift from medieval theology to an interest in classical works and humanism. Major works included those by Shakespeare and Milton.
4. Classicism
This document provides an overview of major movements in European literature and art from ancient times to modernism. It discusses the following periods and their defining characteristics:
1. Ancient World - Literature originated in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and included religious texts and epics like the Iliad and Odyssey. Major critics included Plato and Aristotle.
2. Middle Ages - Literature was dominated by the Christian church and included religious writings, romances, and works like Dante's Divine Comedy and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
3. Renaissance - Marked a shift from medieval theology to an interest in classical works and humanism. Major works included those by Shakespeare and Milton.
4. Classicism
Art in Europe an Interdisciplinary Approach Ancient world Middle Ages The Renaissance Classicism Romanticism Realism and Naturalism Modernism Chapter 1. Ancient World (500B.CA.d.400)
The ancient world represents the most
significant area and period of ancient mans development. The area is the Mediterranean Basin. In this place and time ancient man laid the intellectual and religious foundations of the modern Western outlook. The literature of the Ancient world was written in three languagesHebrew, Greek, and Latin. Chapter 1. Ancient World
The Hebrew achieve little of note in the
military area and their later history was a bitter and unsuccessful struggle for freedom. They left no drama nor epic poetry but religious literature, which was later called the Old testament. Chapter 1. Ancient World Greek literature begins with two masterpieces the Iliad (Trojan War) and Odyssey (Odysseus), which were created by Homer. As a result of the political and economical development and the great literary achievements in poetry and drama, the ancient Greek literary criticism prospered.
The greatest Ancient literary critics are Plato and
Aristotle, who opened the history of Western literary criticism. Chapter 1. Ancient World
The Romans looked to Greek models for
their literature. Romans began to write after they conquered Greece. The first real example of a literary work in Latin is a translation of Homers Odyssey.
In spite of the imitation, there were the
finest Roman accomplishments in literature, as in other aspects of art and life. Chapter 2. Middle Ages (5001500A.D.) The period of the Middle Ages encompasses a thousand years of European history, distinguished by the heroic-Age society with Greco-Roman culture and Christian religion. It began with the collapse of the Roman Emperor and ended with discovery of the Western Hemisphere, the consolidation of strong national states and the break in religions brought about by the protestant reformation. Chapter 2. Middle Ages
During the Medieval times, there was no
central government to keep the order. The only organization that seemed to unite Europe was the Christian Church.
Christianity took the lead in politics, law,
art and learning for hundreds of years. Religion shaped peoples lives. Chapter 2. Middle Ages The medieval literature can be divided into three categories---religious writing, romance, and vernacular writings.
The greatest achievement of religious literature
was made by Italian poet, Dante. His masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, is the greatest Christian poem with a profound vision of the Medieval Christian world. It expresses humanistic ideas which foreshadowed the spirit of the Renaissance. Chapter 2. Middle Ages
With regard to romance, the most
well-known are the adventures of King Arthur and his knights of the round Table.
The vernacular literature of this time
tends to be realistic and satirical. The greatest works of this kind is Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. Chapter 3. Renaissance (13501650) Against the theology of the Middle Ages arose the intellectual movement, Renaissance, which sprang first in Italy in the fourteenth century and gradually spread all over Europe.
The movement had two striking features.
One was the thirsting curiosity for classical literature, and the other was the keen interest in human beauty and human activities, which is in sharp contrast with Medieval theology. Chapter 3. Renaissance Renaissance marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world. It resulted from many new facts and forces arising within the old order of the Medieval Period: Hellenistic spirithuman beings are glorious creatures capable of individual development (perfection) The Protestant Reformation The introduction of printing, which led to a commercial market for literature Chapter 3. Renaissance The great economic and political changes leading to the rise of democracy
The encouragement of the growing new science.
The spirit of nationalism and an ambitious
commercialism
All these made human beings and nature the
results of natural and demonstrable law rather than a mysterious group of entities subject to Gods. Chapter 3. Renaissance
The peak of it occurred at different times in
different countries, the movement having had its inception in Italy, where its impact was at first most visible in the fine arts, while in England, for instance, it developed later and its main achievements were in literature, particularly in dramas (Williams Spears) and poems (John Milton) Chapter 4. Classicism (1680s1750s)
The Renaissance is romantic in nature, for
it stresses the liberation of the human mind. To restrain the liberal mind arose a new literary movement, Classicism, which began in France in the late 17th century and flourished in other European countries in the mid-18th century. Chapter 4. Classicism As a result of the establishment of the Monarchy, France had emerged as a national state with the King. The King, to weaken the power of the feudal nobility and strengthen his own power, made some concessions to the bourgeoisie, who were new and weak and in need of the help of the Monarch. Therefore, the King and the bourgeoisie worked in combination and wiped out the feudal rules of separation Chapter 4. Classicism To unite the nation in politics demanded an authoritative literature corresponding with it--- that is Classicism. Classicism places emphasis upon the qualities of the classical literature: Rationalism---elegant and well-proportioned form, precise idea, true-to-life description and standardized language.
Restraint of emotion and passion
Chapter 4. Classicism An ability to think logically and to communicate objectively rather than subjectively.
Follow the fixed laws and rules drawn from
Greek and Latin works.
These qualities are apparent in the words of
Moliere, the best representative dramatist of French classical comedies, and of Pope, the greatest English poet and critic of Classicism. Chapter 5. Romanticism (1780s1830s) As a reaction to the restraints and rules imposed by classicists, Romanticism came into being in the late 18th century.
Romanticism is a bourgeois literary
movement and its emergence was closely connected with the French Revolution, the European national liberation movement and the Industrial Revolution: Chapter 5. Romanticism
In 1789 broke our the French Revolution which
destroyed the feudalism and established the bourgeois democracy with its slogans of liberty and equality. Inspired by it, the national liberation movement swept over Europe and Industrial Revolution arose.
However, Capitalist industrialization brought
sufferings and poverty to the working class. As a protest against the industrial revolution, writers looked to the Middle Ages and to direct contact with nature, wanting to return to the simpler life of the past. Chapter 5. Romanticism Characteristics: Romanticists were discontented with and opposed to the development of capitalism. They tried to idealize the life of a non-capitalist society and thus laid emphasis on subjective idealism and emotional expression. Romanticists had a persistent interest in the medieval literature, such as epics, ballads, which were not restricted by various kinds of classical rules and were characterized by rich imagination, strong emotion and free expression. Chapter 5. Romanticism Romanticists showed a profound admiration and love for nature. Romanticist were full of moral enthusiasm, believing ideality. Romanticists took interest in the strange and the mysterious as opposed to common sense.
The leading Romantic writers include Blake,
Wordsworth, Scott, Shelly and Keats in England. Chapter 6. Realism (1850s1920s) Realism, as a literary movement, is usually called critical realism, because it rose as a reaction against the social reality and the sentimentality of Romanticism. Realism began in France in the 1850s and prevailed in Europe and the United States until the early 20th century. Chapter 6. Realism The capitalists ruthless exploitation and suppression left the working class in extreme poverty. As a result, the workers began to fight against the capitalism, which started in France 1848 and swept over the other European countries. But for lack of strong leading nuclear powers, they all failed.
The failure brought about a time of false imagination
and loss of hope (sentimentality of Romanticism), and the literary men felt the need for a return to what was plain and real. Therefore, the name Realism was given to the new movement. Chapter 6. Realism
Characteristic:
Critical realism was characterized by the
verisimilitude of details derived from observation and objective description of the representative character in a typical circumstance.
The language was usually simple, clear and
direct, and their tone was often sarcastic. Chapter 6. Realism
It provided a vivid picture of the capitalist world,
exposed the social contradictions and criticized the ugliness of the bourgeois world.
Realists showed profound sympathy for the
common people, but could not find them a right way out. Their words pointed toward moral evolution and reform rather than revolution. Chapter 7. Naturalism Naturalism is a literary movement which is regarded by many as related to but different from, Realism. Its founder was Emile Zola, French novelist. Naturalistic writers held that mans existence is shaped by heredity and environment over which he has no control and about which he can exercise little if any choice. Chapter 7. Naturalism Novels and plays in the movement emphasized the animal nature of man and portrayed characters engrossed in a helpless brutal struggle for survival in a cold world. Unlike realistic writers, naturalists attempted to achieve fidelity to nature by rejecting idealized portrayals of life. Realists observed a general situation and invented incidents which would make that situation vivid, while naturalists dissect and analyze the subjects with dispassionate and scientific accuracy. Chapter 8. Modernism (1890s1950s) Modernism was a complex and diverse international literary movement, originating at about the end of the 19th century and reaching its maturity in the mid 20th
Modernism was rooted in the social upheavals
(Wars, economic crisis) and promoted by the new ideas and thoughts such as Nietzsches philosophy of subconsciousness, Sigmund Freuds psychoanalysis, Bergsons intuitionism, and Darwinism. Chapter 8. Modernism The economic crisis and the great tragedy of the two world wars shook peoples trust and belief in the future and values of capitalism. A large group of writers took up pens to express peoples frustration and present how people were distorted and dislocated under the irrational forces of the modern world. After 1950s, Modernism began to lose its wail, but its artistic technique has been still exerting influence. Therefore, the time between the 1950s and the present day is generally regarded as the period of postmodernism, Chapter 8. Modernism Modernism is mainly characterized by a conscious rejection of established rules, traditions and conventions both in content and in form. In content, the search for identity is the frequent common theme. To modernists, the world is an irrational machine, from whose control man can by no means escape; man is an indifferent, selfish animal who is unable to understand each other; nature is like a horrible prison where mans freedom is not allowed. In such a world of chaos, man loses his identity and doesnt know where he belongs to. Chapter 8. Modernism Therefore, modernists deny rationalism and science, and stress the importance of instinct and subconsciousness in literary creation. They are subjective idealists who concentrate on the inner reality of the character. Their works are tragic, nihilistic and mysterious. In form, Modernism is the synonym of revolution. Not any of the previous periods in history has ever seen so many experiments in form and style. They advocate art for arts sake. To them, art should be separated from life and politics. It serves nothing but itself. Chapter 8. Modernism
The Renaissance: A Captivating Guide to a Remarkable Period in European History, Including Stories of People Such as Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Copernicus, Shakespeare, and Leonardo da Vinci
The Middle Ages: A Captivating Guide to the History of Europe, Starting from the Fall of the Western Roman Empire Through the Black Death to the Beginning of the Renaissance
Collected Works of Marxism, Anarchism, Communism: The Communist Manifesto, Reform or Revolution, The Conquest of Bread, Anarchism: What it Really Stands For, The State and Revolution, Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It