Foundations of Modernity
The Cultures of the Italian Renaissance
FIST 224 – COL 224 – ITAL 224 – MDST 223
Prof. F.M. Aresu – faresu@wesleyan.edu | Monday and Friday, 10:50 AM – 12:10 PM | FISK210
Office Hour: Monday and Wednesday 1:00-2:00, and by appointment
In this course we will critically explore the intellectual achievements of the Italian Renaissance through a detailed analysis of some of its literary masterpieces. We will inquire into the rediscovery and emulation of classical literatures and civilizations. We will examine the revalidated notions of beauty, symmetry, proportion, and order. We will analyze the ways in which this rebirth fundamentally changed the languages, literatures, arts, philosophies, and politics of Italy at the dawn of the modern era. We will also approach often-neglected aspects of Renaissance counter-culture, such as the aesthetics of ugliness and obscenity, and practices of marginalization (misogyny, homophobia). In a pioneering quest for the fulfillment of body and soul, self-determination, glory, and pleasure, Italian scholars, philologists, poets, playwrights, and prose writers contributed to the development of new and increasingly secular values. Through a close reading of texts by authors such as Francesco Petrarca, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti, we will investigate continuities and ruptures between their quest for human identity and ours.
* Fear not! Course conducted in English. All primary and secondary sources in English.
For more information, please go to: https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse=014560&term=1171
and do not hesitate to contact Professor F. Marco Aresu <faresu@wesleyan.edu>.