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Ideas in Literature — Discovering Cultural Ideas
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
Following the Big Idea Workshops are one or two Ideas in Literature collections
that explore some of the ideas and contexts that inform our cultural conversation.
They are arranged to highlight cultural ideas that parallel the development of
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
Britain’s literary heritage. These sections focus on thinking critically and guiding
students to the next level of literary analysis and interpretation.

IDEAS IN LITERATURE
Thought and Feeling IDEAS IN LITERATURE

The transition from the medieval period to the Renaissance in England (and
Europe) was a complex political, social, economic, religious, and cultural pro-
cess that occurred over two centuries. In fact, no one living at that time would

Each section have used renaissance — a French word meaning “rebirth” — to describe the era: IDEA BANK
begins with a brief nineteenth-century historians first applied the term to the period. But the idea Beauty
of a rebirth captures many elements integral to this revival of Greek and Roman
introduction to classical culture — and the subsequent flowering of art, science, literature, philos- Carpe Diem
Continuity
contextualize the ideas, ophy, politics, and music. Culture
In a sense, the Renaissance shifted Western culture from being institutionally
and an Idea Bank to centered (especially the institutions of the church and monarchy) to being more Desire
help students consider human-centered. We can see the implications of this humanism in the Protestant Exaggeration
Feelings
essential ideas. reformation that was underway throughout Europe. In England, King Henry VIII Humanism
(1491–1547) broke away from the authority of the Catholic Church when the
Pope denied him a divorce. But a more important change was already occurring. Inquiry
Protestants (i.e., Puritans, Calvinists, Quakers, and others) argued that individuals Learning
had a personal, intellectual, and emotional relationship with God: a faith rooted Love
in “knowing” God through their own individual experiences, rather than a faith Passion
mediated by the Catholic Church — an institution that Protestants viewed as cor- Reformation
rupt. Certainly, the first English translations of the Bible — the Geneva Bible in
1560 and the King James Bible in 1611 — nurtured this view. For the first time, an Renaissance
increasingly literate public could interpret the word of God on their own. Thought
But the consequences of humanism went far beyond religion. In contrast to the Transformation
medieval period, when authority emanated solely from the church and the divinely Wonder
ordained king, the Renaissance saw the emergence of a new authority: individual
experience, perception, and judgment. In England, for example, the philosopher, The Last Supper,
The Last Supper, 1495-97 (tempera and oil on plaster)/Vinci, Leonardo da (1452-1519)/MAURO RANZANI (IMAGINART)/ Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy/Bridgeman Images Leonardo da Vinci,

1495. The painting
covers an end wall of
the dining hall at the
monastery of Santa
Maria delle Grazie in
Milan, Italy.
How does this painting
reflect the spirit of the
Renaissance period?
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