Renaissance English Literature
The Renaissance as the time period went down in history of England later than in other Western European countries, but was more intense and impressive.
The term Renaissance itself means “rebirth”. The rebirth of what? The new birth of the Ancient World. The arts and the sciences of the period spurred on probably by the discovery of an ancient Roman town-city called Pompeii that was completely buried by the volcano eruption in 79 AD.[Makkai Lazslo, 1974] In my opinion, this historic event suddenly brought about a specific tone in all European cultures and their reflections.
This also caused the outbreak belief known as humanism – the idea that although church is still very important as during the Middle Ages, but it should only rule spiritual, not civic or scientific matters. People’s destiny is in their hands. In England, the early humanistic tendencies emerged in the second half of the 14th century and mostly grew in literature – firstly appeared in Geoffrey Chaucer works (1340-1400).
The single greatest innovation of the Renaissance era was the printing press, put into service around 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. His design maximized printing efficiency in a way that changed the world forever.[Josh Rahn, 2011] Books became available for common people and, for example, rediscovered manuscripts from ancient Greece and Rome could be copied and shared through the universities. One of the most significant effects of the printing press was the standardization of the English language. We can observe the process of standardization when, for instance, a book was published and then hundreds or even thousands copies were made and every word in them had the same spelling.
What about the literature genre? Certainly, the main role play the poem and the drama. In spite of different kinds of poems that were used before the beginning of Renaissance era, the most common and popular in sixteen-century England were the lyric, the tragedy, the elegy, and the pastoral. English poetry of the period was ostentatious, repetitious and often betrayed a subtle wit [Josh Rahn, 2011]
Finally, I want to write some words about the Person largely thanks to whom The English Renaissance Culture left in the world history. The Person who, to my mind, for recent times is the King of Drama. No one matched William Shakespeare in terms of variety profundity and exquisite use of language. He wrote from classical Greco-Roman stories to fairy tales of poor unrequited love. Shakespeare and his wonderful sonnet, and his comedian tragedy and tragic comedy, from complex characters to light farce are the most significant peculiarities of the Renaissance English Literature.
References:
Josh Rahn (2011) Renaissance Literature, The University of Kentucky
Makkai Laszlo ( 1974) A reneszansz vilaga (The Renaissance World), Budapest: Ateneum
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