Cours 2
The sonnet began in Italy and then spread first to France and then to England. Shakespeare’s sonnets(1609) written around the same time as A Midsummer night’s dream (1595/1596).
There is a great contrast in Shakespeare’s works = Englishness of Shakespeare’s works vs his intertexualities.
Sicily, was a Kingdom in the 13th century, was one of the wealthiest kingdoms in the Mediterranean, sicily was affected by norman ivasion and people spoke 5 languages so very bright era, and divergence from traditional literature, epic tales and bulk of medieval literature branched from philosophy and religion
⇒Thomas Aquinas : most influencial thinker of the medieval era.
Sicily = mixed of cultures (jews, muslims, christians etc) so sonnet broke away from traditional biblical/ religious literature and started out as love poems.
Sonnet= short song, main themes love and gravity, term comes from “sonetto” in Italian.
Great medieval sonneteer = Francesco Petrarca 1304-1374,
⚠️ historical context :
14th century was abominable because of the great/black plague which killed half the european population + Popes had to run away from Rome to Avignon (due to the political climate) where the court developed and artists of the court which was really bright, Avignon didn’t become french until the french revolution (papal state of Avignon)
Petrarca wrote the Canzoniere in 1327 : 366 sonnets, created the convention of sonnets around the world, set a pattern **
⇒The Decameron was a landmark for prose and a huge succes in Europe in which people are in lockdownn and are so bored they tell each other stories, The Canterbury Tales = similar principle
Giovanni Boccacio (1313-1375) Il Decameron and geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) The Canterbury tales
Quattrocento= 15th century in italy, begining of renaissance and further distances itself from religion and truly where the renaissance began (which got appropriated by the french and the english later on) Shakespeare’s sonnets = late renaissance
Many books as early as the early 1400’s were first printed in greek + new ideas dealt with so creation of neologisms, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Dream of Pholiphilus) by Francesco Colonna written in 1460 but published in 1499 bc of political context, litterally it translates to the love fight dream and poliphi=archetype of the everyman of the renaissance. Colonna first european author to develop a theorical grid on how to create neologism, Toscan dialect is not eleborated enough to explain complex concepts so neologisms based from toscan, greek and latin, this had a great influence in france and authors like Rabelais mocks intellectuals like Colonna.
⇒ Colonna renaissance encyclopedia which the french adopted, Joachim de Bellay based on Colonna principles, abstract concepts became concrete
]⇒ Renaissance in England taking place a little later and also based on colonna’s dream
⇒ Shakespeare insists upon he can create a specially english form of sonnets which make fun of traditional form of sonnets and rejection of italian influence
“An Englishman italianate is a devil incarnate”
So basically Sonnets originated from Italy and then traveled to France (cultural exchanges between france and italy), and then arrived to England in the Italian manner and people later began to break away from the traditional italian manner.
- Shakespeare sonnets, combinaison of love, mockery and gross pornography.
14lines, evey line contains 10 syllables, rhymes ABBA patern , great difference between italian and english sonnets=conclusion 2 lines (couplet) which rhyme together (Shakespeare)