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| Unit name |
Reading Renaissance Culture |
| Unit code |
ITAL10026 |
| Credit points |
10 |
| Level of study |
C/4
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Kay |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
none
|
| Co-requisites |
none
|
| School/department |
Department of Italian |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
This unit aims to acquaint students with the political, institutional, and social framework of Renaissance Italy and the manner in which recent historiography has discussed the Renaissance as both period and cultural movement. The unit will focus attention upon specific genres of writing which came particularly to the fore in the wake of the classical revival (demonstrative rhetoric, epic, dialogue, etc., etc.) and the manner in which different scholars have chosen to characterise aspects of this period of cultural change as either continuity, revival, or decadence. Particular focus will be given to discussions concerning the Italian Renaissance's relation to European modernity.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students will be able to:
- analyse the paintings studied using appropriate terminology and demonstrate an understanding of their context in Renaissance Italy
- demonstrate an understanding of the social and cultural context of artists and writers in Renaissance Florence
- compare and contrast secondary readings of the period
Teaching Information
One seminar hours per week across one teaching block (10 contact hours).
Assessment Information
One 2000 word essay (100%)
Reading and References
- Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972)
- Peter Burke, The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1986)
- Alison Brown, The Renaissance, 2nd edn (London: Longman, 1999)
- Charles Dempsey, The Portrayal of Love: Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ and Humanist Culture at the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992)
- Ronald Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976)
- Literary Theory/Renaissance Texts, ed. by Patricia Parker and David Quint (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986)
- S. Greenblatt, Renaissance Self -Fashioning: from More to Shakespeare. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1980.
- M. Mc Luhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy; the making of typographic man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962
