The Early Modern Period

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The Early Modern Period

• Presentation for English 2332
• Dr. Brenda Cornell

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Period of Revolution (Change) and Reform

• This period of culture and literature may be
  described as one of revolution and reform
  religious, philosophical, and political. Until
  the year 1200 C. E., almost all of the worlds
  literature was composed in the elite languages,
  employing literary devices far removed from the
  speech of the common people.
• The literature of the Early Modern Period, for
  the most part, undergoes the major reform of
  appearing in the everyday language of the people
  (hence, a vernacular reform) while reflecting
  the global cultural changes that were underway.

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Former Literacy Privilege
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1000-1300 A Vernacular Revolution Begins

• Most writers began using the language of the
  commonfolk
• Some cultures still used the elite literary
  language for poetry and prose romances (ex.,
  China, Japan) it was considered to be the
  literature of the privileged classes

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By the 1500s

• Throughout the world, prose writers favored a
  vernacular style much closer to everyday
  speech. The shift in style brought a shift in
  emphasis, toward more realistic portrayals of
  everyday life, often with more attention to the
  lower classes. Vernacular comes from the
  Latin, verna, meaning a household slave, and
  later home-grown or native. The vernacular
  tongue, then, is the language of the people.

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India

• The former Sanskrit gave way to writing in many
  of the different languages spoken around the
  Indian subcontinent, such as Tamil and Telugu.
  These writers often came from artisan or merchant
  classes, and they resented the high-toned
  Sanskrit of the Brahmins. Religious writing
  still favored the Sanskrit, but over time, it too
  was composed for the common folk.

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Europe

• German and Icelandic writers on the margins of
  the Latin tradition began to write in local
  Germanic languages Anglo-Saxon, Irish, and Welsh
  literatures all flourished in the British Isles.
  
• By 1300, even the strong writers of the Latin
  tradition, Dante in Italy and the Provencal poets
  in France, were using the vernacular to write
  great poetry. In a letter to his patron, Can
  Grande della Scala, Dante defended his writing of
  the Commedia in Italian rather than Latin, saying
  that he wanted to reach as many of his country
  men and women as possible.

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Themes for Literature

• The epic hero becomes the epic knight in Don
  Quixote, by Miguel Savedra de Cervantes. It was
  written in Spanish, which by that time, had
  become the language of the people.
• John Miltons literary works gave personal
  dimensions to the literary epic Paradise Lost,
  Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes all grew out
  of his personal struggles with blindness (he lost
  his sight at age 23).
• The sonnet became one of the main forms of lyric
  poetry, begun in Italy by Petrarch, but also used
  widely by English Renaissance writers such as
  Shakespeare, Wyatt, and John Donne.

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Literary Themes Continued

• Social/religious themes show through the literary
  works of this period. Several Shakespearean
  plays highlight the female character who
  outsmarts the male The Tempest and The
  Merchant of Venice (an especially bold move since
  women were forbidden to act on the stage). In
  The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare also protests
  the growing European anti-Semitism by making
  Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, his protagonist
  and most sympathetic character. In Othello,
  Shakespeares tragic hero is a Moor (black man)
  who is in love with the fair Desdemona. In the
  character of Iago, the villain, Shakespeare shows
  what happens when the Machiavellian philosophy is
  twisted for selfish means. Shakespeare is
  regarded as the inventor of the character of the
  Machiavellian villain.

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Translation

• As vernacular writing spread, translation of
  major literary texts became more and more
  important. In biblical translations, the Church
  had always favored the exclusive use of Latin for
  theological writing so that all Christians could
  understand it in common (Latin was the language
  of the Church).
• However, with the rise of Protestantism,
  reformers emphasized the need to make the Bible
  accessible to all Christians. One of the more
  important religious-political events of this time
  was the translation of the Authorized King James
  Version of the Bible, authorized by King James in
  1611. The literature of the English Renaissance
  (especially Shakespeare) shows the strong
  influence of this document.

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The Printing Press

• Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in
  Germany around 1450, but William Caxton
  (1422?-1491), was the first English printer, born
  probably in Tenterden, Kent. His translation and
  print of The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,
  in 1474, was the first book printed in English.
  Caxton printed nearly 100 publications, about 20
  of which he also translated from French and
  Dutch. The more notable books from his press
  include The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and
  Criseyde by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer and
  Confessio Amantis by English poet John Gower.

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Spread of Education

• In West Africa, Musa (a Muslim convert who ruled
  from 1312-1337 ) provided generous patronage for
  scholarship and the arts. West Africa relied on a
  strong oral tradition, but Arabic script
  (influential worldwide) was introduced during
  this period.

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Education and Religion in Europe

• In Europe, Martin Luther, a German theologian,
  nailed his 95 theses to the church door at
  Wittenburg, setting off the Protestant
  Reformation, forever questioning and changing the
  formerly unified, universal Catholic church.
• Some of the bloodiest religious wars were in
  France (1560s-1590s), where the Protestant
  minority challenged the Catholic majority as the
  nobility and bourgeoisie struggled for
  independence Throughout the sixteenth and
  seventeenth centuries, religion would remain a
  central issue in European society, with 70
  percent of books published written on the subject
  of religion (many of them Protestant tracts)
• In England, King Henry VIII fought with the
  Catholic church over the issue of his desire to
  divorce Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne
  Boleyn. In protest, he declared himself to be
  the head of the Church, an act which marked the
  beginning of Protestantism in England.

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Education and Religion in the Americas

• In what is now Central America, Spanish explorers
  (Diaz. Cortes, Pizarro) discovered and conquered
  these lands for Spain. The Spanish colonial
  system, closely connected with the hierarchy of
  the Catholic Church, would control New Spain for
  three centuries. By the seventeenth century, New
  Spain began to experience a resurgence of Mexican
  identity that would culminate in independence in
  1821. Spanish, not Latin, was established as
  the main language, the language of the people,
  although the dominant church was still Catholic.

15
Education and Literacy in China

• In China, under the Emperor Yongle,
  Neo-Confucianism was the official philosophy of
  the imperial court. The extremely competitive
  civil service exam, begun during an earlier
  dynasty, was based on Confucian teachings. The
  revised examination (which allowed some social
  mobility) required the applicant to create a
  composition in a very difficult style (consisting
  of eight parallel sections) known as the
  "eight-legged essay." It also required
  memorization and explication of the ancient
  Chinese classics and commentaries on them,
  especially the works of Confucius.

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Education in India

• In India, Akbar (r. 1556-1605), who was
  considered India's greatest imperial ruler
  (badshah), cexpanded the empire to include the
  Deccan Plateau and the Northern independent
  states, reorganized its political structure
  (including taxes) with individualized ministries,
  built new cities, and provided generous patronage
  for the arts. At its height in the sixteenth
  century, the Mughal empire had a population of
  100 to 150 million. Enormous wealth, made
  possible by a growing international trade in
  textiles, led to the flowering of Mughal art
  (especially architecture and miniature painting)
  under the influence of Persian culture. Akbar's
  grandson Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) commissioned
  magnificent palaces, mosques, and garden tombs,
  including one of the most beautiful buildings in
  the world, the Taj Mahal.

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Summary

• The Early Modern Period of Literature, marked by
  historical, cultural, religious changes, brought
  about educational advances and a flowering of
  literature and art.

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Works Cited

• Damrosch, et. al. The Longman Anthology of World
  Literature. Volume C. Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Prentice-Hall, 2006.
• Davis, et. al. The Bedford Anthology of World
  Literature. Book 3. NY Bedford/St. Martins,
  2006.
• http//bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/worldlit/default.a
  sp?b3uid0rau0
• http//home.vicnet.net.au/neils/renaissance/caxto
  n.htm