The Evolution of Theatre and Literature: From Ancient Greece to the Renaissance
4 Stages: Arcaic Era, Classical Era, Helenistic Era and Roman Era.
Theatre
Tragedy and Comedy.
Classical Era: end of Median Wars, 449 B.C.- Alejandro Magno 356 B.C.
Settings: Athens.
THEATRE: Its origins are related to ditirambo, some hymns in honour of Dionysius. They Had been performed by a chorus formed by singers and dancers. They acted on a Stage called orchestra and they were leaded by a corifeo who acted upon an Actor. All of them wore special shoes called coturnos and masks. In Greece, there were tragedy and comedy.
Greek Tragedy. Features:
Aristocratic Or Upper- class characters and Gods/ Goddess.
Mythological Themes.
Enriched and precious language.
Searching for catharsis, that is, the Purification of bad feelings in human beings at realising that even powerful People suffered a lot such as they had to.
5th century B.C. Aeschylus, Sophocles y Euripides are the most important playwrights.
They made theatre evolve to a more professional and humanistic performance.
Aeschylus
(534-455 BC.) focused on the Fate; Sophocles (497-406 B.C.) on human suffering
And a dignified behaviour; Euripides (Athens, 484-406 B.C.) on human point of
View of his characters and showing the reality of his time.
There are Two big cycles: The cycle of Argos (Agamemnon) and the one of Thebes (Oedipus)
Some plays (according to the previous one):
The Cycle of Argos: Helen, Hecuba, Hippolytus, Iphigenia in Aulide, Medea, The Troyans…
The Cycle of Thebes: King Oedipus, Electra, Antigone, Bacchants…
Courtly love is a conventionalized code that prescribed the behaviour of ladies and Their lovers. It began with the troubadour as poetry of Aquitaine and Provence In southern France toward the end of the 11th century. It constituted a Revolution in thought and feeling.
The courtly Love existed to serve his lady. His love was invariably adulterous; marriage at That time being usually the result of business interest or the seal of a power Alliance. Faithlessness was the mortal sin.
There were Strict rules of courtly love and the art of courtly love was practised by the Members of the courts across Europe during the Middle Ages. This allowed Knights and ladies to show their admiration regardless of the marital state. An Example is given in the Legend of King Arthur, where his Queen Guinevere fell In love with Sir Lancelot.
SOME RULES OF COURTLY LOVE are:
Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
He who is Not jealous, cannot love.
It is well known that love is always Increasing or decreasing.
Boys do not love until they arrive at the age Of maturity.
When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years Is required of the survivor.
When made public love rarely endures.
A new love puts to flight an old one.
When a lover suddenly catches sight of his Beloved, his heart palpitates.
A man in love is always apprehensive.
Love can deny nothing to love.
Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two Men or one man by two women…
COURTLY LOVE POEMS AND SONGS
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote Canterbury Tales. The Miller’s Tales describes the art of courtly Love. Troubadours and minstrels memorized and sang ballads about courtly love. The most famous ones are those of the Dark Ages myths of Arthurian Legend (King Arthur, Camelot, Knights of the Round Table).
DOLCE STIL NOVO
Italian “sweet new style”.
The most important literary movement of the 13th century in Italy.
Influenced by the Sicilian School and Tuscan Poetry. Its main theme is Love. Noble-mindedness (gentilezza) is also found.
Authors: Guinizzelli, Cavalcanti and Dante.
Refined poetry, superior in quality and more Intellectual than the previous courtly love. Use of metaphors and symbolism, Double meanings.
The Adoration of the female beauty. Deep introspection. Vivid descriptions of female Beauty. The woman is described as an angel or as a bridge to God, a sort of Divine Love.
This
Movement is the first true literary tradition in Italy and the precursor of
Petrarch’s Renaissance.
Dante Alighieri (Italy, 1308-1321) wrote one Of the greatest works of world literature: Divine Comedy. The poem’s Imaginative and allegorical vision of the afterlife is a culmination of the Medieval world-view. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Plot: Dante’s travels through Hell and Purgatory guided by the Latin Poet Virgil and through Heaven by his beloved Beatriz. In fact, it represents Allegorically the soul’s journey towards God. Its Vita nuova (inside dolce stil Nuovo)is an autobiography which includes its poems and explanations in prose= At 9 years-old, Dante met Beatriz; 9 years later, they met again and Dante fell Completely in love with Beatriz; after Beatriz’s death, Dante draws on the love To the woman as the best way to be close to God.
RENAISSANCE
It began in Italy because of the rediscovery of the classical past of ancient Rome (from 500B.C. To A.D.300) with itsnoble buildings and sculptures (ex. Laocoon), super Plays and poetry (The Aeneid), important writings on government, politics, and Law (senatus consultum). They were known in the Middle Ages (1300) and studied And reinterpreted or even imitated. In fact, Renaissance means rebirth. There Was a revival of interest in the classical works of Greece and Rome, which Inspired a new way of looking at the world. Thinkers turned away from the medieval Preoccupation with saving souls and avoiding temptation, and began instead to Explore people’s individuality and to educate them in their duties to society. This movement is known as humanism. At the same time, artists celebrated the Beauty of the human body in more lifelike paintings and sculptures. Books were Scarce and precious. Each one was copied out by hand by a professional scribe Or a monk producing manuscripts of religious texts, beautifully decorated or Illuminated with coloured inks. They were locked and guarded in monasteries, Convents and cathedrals. This monastic monopoly gave the Catholic Church a Great deal of power and reinforced its position at the centre of medieval life In Europe.
Some important features of the Renaissance:
Renaissance authors, like the characters they Invent, inhabited a world of such widespread revolutionary change that they Could not passively receive the traditional wisdom of previous ages (Pasinetti And James 2465)
Influencing the nature of the flowering of the Arts, great changes were occurring during the Renaissance in the areas of Religion, technology and science, world exploration and discovery, bureaucratic And institutional power, economic and social power. All of them were highly Interrelated.
THE HUMAN BODY
For 1000
Years, the science of the body, anatomy, had remained virtually unchanged.
Medieval doctors relied on textbooks and tradition. In the 16th century,
Revolution in anatomy took place, led by artists (most notably Leonardo da
Vinci and Michelangelo) as well as doctors. This revolution made both doctors
And artists begin to dissect bodies and describe the results with accuracy. An
Example of that work can be found in Michelangelo’s massive statue David, known
As the perfecto body, which showed an intimate knowledge of bone structure,
Muscles, sinews and veins to express the body’s grace and nobility. In the same
Way of searching, (and in spite of the Church’s opposition, some artists made
Discreet use of public bath-houses to observer the naked human body.
Medicine Evolved highly because medical students were taught from books based on Practice of human dissection.
THE RENAISSANCE LEGACY
Renaissance Humanism spreads across Europe during the 16th century. People felt free to Look at the world in fresh ways, to express individual thoughts, and to Question traditional views. Its influences went on in the following century in Western Europe. Painters and sculptors were no more craftsmen but fine artists; Writers such as Shakespeare used languages with a new exuberance and beauty; Scientists such as Newton examined how theuniverse functioned; the philosophers Pascal or Descartes looked rationally at the relationship between human beings And God. Other examples:
The Spanish Writer Miguel de Cervantes created two immortal comic characters, the country Gentleman don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza. The best-selling adventures Of don Quixote make fun of Renaissance chivalry and model a new kind of Anti-heroic fiction.
Over 40
Years, the great Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69) produced a series
Of self-portraits. These made an honest record of the artist’s life, from
Youthful success, through loss and bankruptcy, to the old age. The series
Embodies the humanist theme that each person’s experience is unique and tells
An individual story.
Cambridge University, in England, became a centre of learning. The famous Dutch scholar Eramus was, for a time, professor of Greek there.
The theatre Was an stage and surrounding galleries like Shakespeare’s The Globe where many Plays (The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet) were performed. He set his Plays in Renaissance Italy.
RENAISSANCE MEN
Leonardo da Vinci is referred as the “universal man” (Jacob Burckhardt, 1860) because he Had cultivated every branch of study, from painting and sculpture to botany and Mathematics. Today he seems that essential example of a Renaissance man: an All-arounder whose talents combined the arts and sciences. In the 16th century, The “universal man” was a scholar and artist, a fine swordsman and horseman, a Witty talker, a graceful orator, a skilled musician, and a responsible citizen. Examples: King Henry VIII, when he was young, was tall and handsome; he could Ride all day, win jousts, speak four languages, play the lute, and talked Learnedly about religion. Another example was Michelangelo who designed tombs, Fortifications, and cathedral domes; and, of course, painted the biblical Scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
LYRIC POETRY
Important Forms of lyric poetry are sonnets (which themselves come in different forms), Odes and elegies. The sonnet tradition is perhaps most central to the Development of lyric poetry in the Renaissance.
Francis Petrarch (see below), an Italian poet often called the “Father of Humanism”, Popularized the sonnet form with his Rime Sparse (or “scattered rhymes”; also Called Fragments in the Vernacular), a sequence of lyric poems mingling Spiritual love with earthly love in which the poetic speaker praises his beloved Laura. Petrarch’s sonnets tried to represent human love in human terms- using Spiritual themes, but in the service of explaining or examining something Earthly.
He is often Celebrated for his use of lyric realism. “Realistic” only insofar as it Contrasts with the highly conventional and often clichéd language frequently Used by courtly poets and troubadours, which depended on traditional and formulaic Expressions (and variations from them) in order to convey meaning. By Shakespeare’s Time, though, even Petrarch would seem clichéd. Petrarch is highly influential, And his innovations became hallmarks of Renaissance humanism.
Less Absolute in its conventions, Renaissance lyric poetry depends for tis meaning On evocative and unexpected associations between images, words, and ideas. Such Poetry cultivates an intimate relationship between the poem, the poet, and the Reader. Often uses the first person (me, the self). Petrarchan motifs and Themes:
Love that burns, love that destroys;
The uncertain self, the self at odds with Himself;
Beloved is idealized, more than human, Angelic;
Earthly love is spiritualized, spiritual love Is embodied.
Francesco Petrarca (PETRARCH, Italy 1304-1374)
Contemporary of Dante and Boccacio (late Medieval period)
Considered the first modern poet and the “Father of Humanism”.
Most famous for his lyric poetry in the Vernacular (Italian, rather than Latin, important because more people could Read and understand, not just educated and scholastic elite)
Set the standard for Renaissance lyric poetry, Which is primarily characterized by a desire to interrogate and understand the Self, the human (also in his letters and essays)
“Petrarch bequeathed t later humanists the Hope that scholar-poets might one day be recognized as shaping forces of the Nation-state” (Pasinetti and James 2479)
Form: sonnet. Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdc dcd. Hendecasyllabic and heptasilabic verses.
Works: Triumphs- allegorical and moral poem written in terza rima (tercetos Encadenados) to describe de several steeps human being must climbs to get Divinity. The Canzoniere- mostly sonnets and the main themeis love. Two parts: Rime in vita when his beloved Laura is alive, and Rime in morte, when dead. Several aesthetic figures such as antithesis, metaphors, words-plays…to Describe grief for his beloved Laura, sorrow for wasting time in a Non-corresponding love rather than in God…
PETRARCH’S FEATURES
Themes of medieval courtly love: beloved lady, Heartbreak…
Influenced by the Greek and Roman culture.
Physical description of the lady using Metaphors: blond hair as gold…
Sensibility for the nature.
Neo-Platonism: philosophical idea according to Which the world/life is beautiful because it shows God’s beauty.
A lot of aesthetic figures: antithesis, Paradoxes, metaphors… Rhyme schemes: sonnet and hendecasyllabic ones.
A big influence on the later literature.
BOCCACIO
Italian poet, 1313-1375. He began writing Stories in verse and prose; later, prose tales, pastorals and poems. His Beloved lady was Fiammetta.
His best Work is Decameron which is a set of stories /fabliaux (satiric narratives Stories about their daily routine, society and politics) narrated by seven Ladies and three gentlemen during the plague at Florence. Features: narrative Skill, rich poetical sentiments, melting two tendencies of European Literature-the classical and the romantic, omniscient narrator.
Themes: love (different types of), Intelligence (wisdom /astuteness), social criticism and the whimsical Fortune.
Aesthetic forms: Epithets, long sentences (but with rhyme), a Wide variety of dialogues…He expects to create a visual landscape or a Moralistic framework or, even, a burlesque work but he always seeks beauty in His work.
Great influenced in the ulterior literature: Chaucer (Cantebury’s Tales), Shakespeare (mention any), Keats(Poems, Ode on a Grecian Urn), Tennyson (The lady of Shallot, Maud), George Eliot( A Mill on the Floss)…
THE CLASSICAL EUROPEAN THEATRE
During 16th And 17th century, Europe lost its religious atmosphere and evolved to:
•an upper theatre : humanistic or Courtesan plays to be performed in university or in aristocratic rooms;
•a popular theatre, comedies Performed by buskers/ street actors in towns.
As time going By, those types of theatre were merged and the resulting theatre pleased to Everybody: in UK Shakespeare’s baroque theatre, in Spain Lope de Vega’s and Calderon’s baroque theatre, in France Corneille‘s, Recine’s and Moliére’s Classical theatre.
English Elizabethan Theatre
In England During 16th and 17th century a type of theatre named Elizabethan was set up Because it flourished being the Queen Elizabeth I(1559-1603),and it lasted the reign of Jacob I (1603-1625) and Charles I (1625-1649). The most important playwright of it was Shakespeare.
This Popular theatre was performed anywhere: inns’ courtyards or orchestras in Theatres such as in the round theatre “The Swan” or the hexagonal one “The Globe”. Although people liked it very much, those buildings were forbidden in London, so they were set up close to the city.
Similar to Spanish yards or corrales, attending people belonged to all social ladders, Mainly peasants. Consequently, some features went on to pleasure that type of Spectator:
Breaking The drama rules/ units about time, place and action,
Mixing Verse and prose.
Interacting Plebeians and noblemen.
Mixing Genres, tragic and comic elements, the real and the supernatural.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born 17 Years after Cervantes was. Both would die the same day in the same year. In 1605, Cervantes published del Quijote and Shakespeare two of his most important Plays: King Lear and Macbeth.
Shakespeare Worked as an actor, writer, conductor…His life is full of sentimental and Unlucky mishaps. He showed the world as real, full of contradictions. The Established social/political /religious order is broken at random and by human Own decisions.
His writing is poetic but, at the same time, It is full of idioms and everyday ways of speaking.
His Characters are complex: They are not stereotypes. They show a psychological Layer as Hamlet or clever woman or victims of society as Ofelia. In fact, Shakespearian characters have got contradictions and strength in themselves.
As a result , Shakespeare’s Works are divided into :
•Historical drama: as well as in Spanish theatre, historical matters are performed to increase English Monarchy’s power: Richard III, Henry VI, Julius Caesar.
•Tragedies: The best ones: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello… Characters’ dramatic strength must Be told as well as the serious consequences of their acts. In fact, some of Them are considered to be archetypes; for example, Hamlet (the doubt), Macbeth (the greed and sorrow), Othello (the jealousy)… Comedies: a mix of fantasy and Reality whose plot makes confusion and love is the main theme. A midsummer Dream, the merchant of Venice, As you like it….
•History is a common topic of those Plays.
Apart from Shakespeare, there were other great playwrights such as Christopher Marlow.
FRENCH THEATRE
French Theatre was quite similar to Spanish Theatre (its most famous playwright was Lope de Vega, Fuenteovejuna). They lasted until the first term of the 17th Century. It was a reaction against Baroque.
French Theatre changed because society asked for a return to Aristotelic classical Rules, that is, to classical theatre. Consequently, the theater was divided Into genre and characters were classified according to those genres. It Followed the classical three units : time, space and action/plot. Besides, all Excess were terribly considered.
Discourse On the method’s Descartes made the Reason the only way of understanding the World. It also drew attention to measure, balance and clearness.
We are Going to study briefly the most important French playwrights: Corneille, Racine Y Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Moliére,(1622-1673) is considered the best playwright than had ever Been. His comedies are strong critics against powerful people of his time. That Gave him a lot of problems and enemies. Even though, he was protected by French King Louis XVI.
His Characters became universal portrays of vices, moral faults and bad habits.
Some of his Comedies were: Tartuffe, written in verse, is a satiric one which informs Against religious hypocrisy; Dom Juan or the Stone Banquet which is a remake of Tirso de Molina’s The Trickster of Seville. The Misanthrope set up a strong Criticism against “upper society’s” superficiality and frivolousness in Paris. The Miser, inspired by Plauto’s The Pot, deals with avarice/greed considered as A timeless vice. The Imaginary Invalid (1673)was his last play. In fact, he died on the stage while he was performing It. Falseness is denounced in it as well as agreed marriages and the abuse of Paternal authority.
Corneille
Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) created the French classical tragedy. From Roman themes Of Horatio… Corneille increased drama and the importance of characters in the Play. So, they had to chose between what they wanted to and what they should Do. At the end, Duty is thicker than pleasure. The Cid was his most famous Play. It was inspired by Guillén de Castro.
Our narrator is such a wreck, it’s Hard not to feel sorry for him. He’s nervous (“very dreadfully Nervous”), paranoid, and physically and mentally ill. He doesn’t know the Difference between the “real” and the “unreal,” and seems To be completely alone and friendless in the world. We suspect that he rarely Sleeps. He’s also a murderer. The theme is that the human heart cannot endure The burden of guilt, especially in the case of murder. The guilty must confess Somehow or be consumed by his/her conscience.
The narrator is an enigmatic character. One way to explain his role is that the narrator’s job is simply to narrate the Story. We don’t know his name, which is representative of us knowing nothing About him at all. He really only exists in relation to the Ushers, and that Relation is primarily as an outsider. The narrator, Roderick Usher and Madeline Usher. Possesses the quintessential -features of the Gothic tale: a haunted House, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness, and doubled personality. For all Its easily identifiable Gothic elements, however, part of the terror of this Story is its vagueness.
Poe chose a raven as the central Symbol in the story because he wanted a “non-reasoning” creature Capable of speech. He decided on a raven, which he considered “equally Capable of speech” as a parrot, because it matched the intended tone of the Poem. Poe said the raven is meant to symbolize “Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance”
This story is one of Poe’s most Violent. Premature burial, mortal love beyond the grave, vampirism… Because One Of Poe’s biggest fears was female abandonment. Through either death or Estrangement
Some scholars have interpreted the Story as an existential allegory about the human condition at large. Even if Individuals are fortunate enough the escape the accidental death of the pit, All mortals are subject to the relentless approach of inevitable death from Time.”If this is the true Interpretation of the meaning of “The Pit and the Pendulum” it relates directly To Poe.
His time in the army and at West Point prepared Poe to write this story Of the prisoner tortured by officers of the Spanish Inquisition.After he got out of the army and quit West Point he began to seriously turn to his writing.Though he tried over and over to become a Successful writer and editor, he went from job to job.His depression is well documented as was his Drinking.When he lost his young wife, Virginia, he collapsed.He recovered, But continued to wander from newspaper to newspaper.
It is heavy focused on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its Reality, unlike many of Poe’s stories which are aided by the supernatural.
Because it is based on the details Of a real crime. C. Auguste Dupin(detective), the narrator and Marie Roget. Mary Cecilia Rogers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes character. Yes it is.
A maelstrom is a very powerful Whirlpool; a large, swirling body of water. A free vortex, it has considerable Downdraft.
The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year. Freedom and confinement, betrayal, drugs And alcohol, mortality and foolishness and folly.
The story is set up in Paris (also In the fictional Rue Morgue). C. Auguste Dupin, a detective.The tale has an underlying metaphor for the Battle of brains vs. Brawn. External horror