POPULAR CULTURE IN THE RENAISSANCE

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POPULAR CULTURE IN THE RENAISSANCE

• A Prismatic Perceptions Project
• Robin Medeiros
• Last update 11.9.00

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POPULAR CULTURE IN THE RENAISSANCE

• Purpose
• Definitions of culture
• Art
• Dance
• Fashion
• Festivals

• Literature
• Music
• Recreation
• Religion
• Theatre

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PURPOSE

• The purposes of this project are to
• Provide students with a model for thesis
  statements, outlines, research papers, and the
  MLA citation format (parenthetical and works
  cited).
• Consider definitions of Popular Culture
• Discuss various modes of Popular Culture in the
  Renaissance

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THESIS STATEMENT

• The study of popular culture is a 20th Century
  phenomenon. However by examining popular culture
  in the Renaissance, we can achieve a greater
  understanding of this historical period, as well
  as those who lived during this time.

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CONCEPTS OF CULTURE

• Definition of terms (Storey)
• What is culture?
• High culture
• Low culture
• Popular culture
• NOTE Provide examples

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ART

• Competitors
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

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DANCE

• Court vs. folk dances
• Court dances
• Galliard
• Pavane
• Folk dances

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FASHION

• Clothing (Annenberg/CPB)
• Discuss requirements, benefits, and issues of
  using new procedures

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FESTIVALS

• Carnivals
• Parades
• Gambling

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LITERATUREORAL TRADITION

• Folk humor
• Proverbs
• Songs
• Stories

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LITERATUREWRITTEN TRADITION

• Literacy
• The Written Word
• Established Genres
• Ballads
• Plays

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LITERACY

• Great number of ordinary people had some
  knowledge of book learning
• The world of workseaman, merchants and agents of
  landlords jobs required regular compilation or
  consultation of lists must know alphabet possess
  rudiments of mathematics
• Richard II (1391)
• Decreed any parent in the kingdom was free to
  send their child to school, if they could find
  one
• Formal education
• (Chamberlain)

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HISTORY OF THE WRITTEN WORD

• Handwritten manuscripts
• Army of copiers (scriptorium) at centers of
  learning at each great court monasteries
• Reproduction without plan
• Materials (parchment, vellum)
• Due to cost, require recycling
• Vellum scraped down written over (palimpsest)
• Manuscripts lost forever
• Archimedes palimpsest (Noel et al.)

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HISTORY OFTHE WRITTEN WORD

• Problems
• Error through ignorance or negligence would
  multiply with successive editions of the work
• Establishing of the correct text becomes a
  major problem
• Demand for great works (e.g. The Bible) ensured
  their continued existence
• Lesser known works
• Fewer copies/ Lack of interest
• Disappear for years, if not forever
• As a result, people continued to struggle with
  problems which had already been solved in
  different places and times

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HISTORY OFTHE WRITTEN WORD

• Origins of Printing (Chamberlain)
• Opened channels of communication
• Work of the few swiftly available to the many
• Gutenberg (Rubenstein)
• The development of movable type
• 1462--Civil War broke out in Maintz
• Established printers settle throughout Europe
• 1476--William Caxton established Englands first
  printing press
• Earliest use print indulgences
• (Chamberlain)

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LITERATUREWRITTEN TRADITION

• Montaignes poesie populaire
• Ballads (Legends)
• Chanson du Roland
• Orlando Furioso (Online Medieval Classical
  Library)
• (Bullfinchs Mythology)

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LITERATUREWRITTEN TRADITION

• Established Genres
• Fabliaux (Harvard College)
• Romance
• Morte DArthur (Legends)
• English folk songs
• Corpus Christi Carol

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LITERATUREWRITTEN TRADITION--PLAYS

• Development of the vernacular drama
• Mystery Plays (Harvard College)
• Full-textTwycross
• Four surviving cycles
• Present the whole history of Mankind from the
  beginning to the Last Judgment
• Selection of biblical episodes
• Center on the life and Passion of Christ

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LITERATUREWRITTEN TRADITION--PLAYS

• Mystery Plays
• Written by local clericsuneven quality
• Joint ecclesiastical and municipal enterprises
• The Wakefield Master is recognized as the best
  author
• 2 Shepherds play
• Part of the Wakefield Cycle (Britannica.com)

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LITERATUREWRITTEN TRADITION--PLAYS

• Morality Plays
• Allegorical dramas
• Subject not biblical history but the life
  history of an individual as typical Humanism
  Genus or Everyman (The Oxford Illustrated
  History of English Literature)
• Two surviving examples
• Castle of Perservance--early 15th Century
• Everyman--translated from the Dutch, early 16th
  Century
• (Luminarium)

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MUSIC

• Chansons
• Chanson du Roland
• Ecclessiastical plainsong
• Minstrels
• Troubadours

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RECREATION

• Fighting
• Football
• Hunting
• Jousting
• Wrestling

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RELIGION

• High-level overview of progress against schedule
• On-track in what areas
• Behind in what areas
• Ahead in what areas
• Unexpected delays or issues

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WORKS CITED