The stages and characteristics of the development of Renaissance literature

The Renaissance was a profound cultural and ideological change in many European countries in the14-16th century. It is a bourgeois anti-feudal and anti-church ideological and cultural movement formed under the historical conditions of the disintegration of feudal society and the germination of capitalism in Europe, which declared the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of modern society.

Renaissance is a big impact on feudal ideology that the bourgeoisie absorbed positive factors from ancient culture in a secular form, which is concentrated in the ideological and cultural fields such as philosophy, education, literature and art.

Renaissance does not simply refer to the revival of ancient slavery culture, but to destroy the feudal religious ideology centered on "God" and establish a bourgeois ideological and cultural system centered on "people" with the help of ancient cultural spirit.

Humanism embodies the characteristics of contending with medieval feudal thoughts everywhere. It opposes God with people, preaches human rights and opposes theocracy.

During the Renaissance, religious literature and aristocratic literature in European countries continued to exist, and folk poems, legends, jokes, fables, plays and other literary works were also very popular. However, after the rise of humanistic literature, it spread rapidly to all countries and became the mainstream of European literature at that time.

During this period, the humanistic literature in Europe has more distinctive national characteristics, richer national historical content and full of patriotism. Humanist writers abandon Latin, which has been used to writing books since the Middle Ages, and write in their own national language, which not only makes literary works have national forms and styles, but also has a positive impact on the formation and stability of modern nation-states. In terms of creative methods, humanist writers abandoned the symbols, meanings and dreams of medieval literature and attached great importance to realism. Humanist writers describe the broad social life, create a series of immortal artistic images and enrich the realistic tradition of European literature. Many genres in modern European literature laid the foundation during the Renaissance, such as sonnets in poetry, mature short stories and novels, dramas and essays that break the boundaries between tragicomedy and comedy.

The Renaissance in Europe began in14th century and lasted until17th century. Over the past 300 years, humanistic literature has made brilliant achievements.

1. Humanism, folk and feudalism coexist, with humanism as the mainstream.

2. Distinctive anti-feudalism and anti-superstition thoughts.

3. Use realistic methods more consciously. It is a broader reflection of social reality. While being loyal to reality, it also has a strong romantic color, such as exaggerated image, lyrical atmosphere and yearning for utopia. It has reached a new height in characterization and many typical images have appeared.

4. National literature and the stereotype of national language.

1 Peterak "Franciska" Peterak (English Frances Peterak, Italian Francesco Petrarca, 1304 ~ 1374) is knowledgeable. He collected manuscripts of ancient Greece and Rome, and studied and popularized classic works. At first, he wrote political essays and narrative poems in Latin, and later he wrote his lyric masterpiece "Song Collection" in Italian. The song collection mainly sings about love for Laura, and there are also some political lyrics praising the motherland and calling for reunification. The poet opposed the mysterious thought of medieval poetry and praised Laura's beauty in form and spirit. His lyric poems developed the style of "gentle new poetry school", abandoned the abstract and obscure style of the Middle Ages, broke through the bondage of asceticism, and showed the humanistic spirit centered on personal love and happiness. His creation also reflects the contradiction of his thoughts. On the one hand, he pursues love and happiness in life, on the other hand, he can't completely get rid of religious asceticism, which causes his inner pain. The form of "Song Collection" is mainly "Sonnets", which has achieved high artistic achievements and opened up a new way for later European lyric poetry.

2 Boccaccio

Giovanni boccaccio (13 13? ~ 1375) was the first humanist who knew Greek. He is a prolific writer, including novels, epics, narrative poems, sonnets, collections of short stories and papers. His masterpiece is decameron (1348~ 1353). At the beginning of the work, ten young men and women lived in the country for ten days to avoid the Black Death. Each of them tells a story every day and a hundred stories in ten days. Through these stories, the author exposed the sins of feudal nobles, attacked the corruption of the church and the debauchery of priests, and denied the religious world outlook and abstinence morality in the Middle Ages. While satirizing the aristocratic monk class, the author created a series of images of emerging capitalists, praising their intelligence and the love of some young men and women. "The author points out that happiness is not in the paradise of the afterlife, but in the present life, love between men and women is a just natural requirement of human beings. However, while opposing asceticism, the novel also preaches some hedonism. The achievement of the collection of novels lies in that it widely reflects the social reality of Italy in the14th century, portrays people of all classes and personalities, and connects the stories in series with the frame structure, making them an organic whole, which has a great influence on later novels in Europe. Decameron is concise in writing, rich in language, good at depicting psychology and nature, which lays the foundation of Italian prose and has a great influence on the development of realistic literature in Western Europe.