How can I understand and appreciate The Renaissance period of Literature? Where do I even begin? Study Latin?
Studying languages just to read a book is for pseuds. Doubly so for dead languages.Just pick up an overview book and then read whatever takes your fancy.
>>24092050I think studying the art of the renaissance is more important than the literature.If you havent done that already.
>>24092050dante is prerenaissance retard
>>24093921A lot of scholars advocate for a "long Renaissance" running from 1300 to 1600. This covers Dante and Giatto as early figures. But even those supporting a later date always have those two as important precursors. I mean, Dante overlaps Petrarch, who is born just after he is exiled and in is his 30s when Dante dies.I do think there is a sort of pernicious side to this though, because advocates of the "long Renaissance" sometimes want to use this to read Dante as primarily a sort of protosecular humanist, which he is absolutely not. This is where you get ridiculous reading like "Palo and Francesca have conquered Hell in love," even though Palo doesn't speak, is never mentioned by name by Francesca who seems pissed off she is stuck with him, and spends the entire time weeping while she tries to seduce the Pilgrim. Or "actually, Ulysses is supposed to be someone we look up to!"I have to assume these "scholars" have only skimmed the Purgatorio and Paradiso, or are just self-consciously doing "creative scholarship."
