Tue - March 6, 2007
Jagged rhythms
English PEN invited members and non-members to an
evening of John Donne. Ruth Padel talked to John Stubbs about his Jerwood
Prize-winning biography of Donne, prompting expressions of surprise at the
colourfulness of Donne's life and occasionally bringing a poet's eye to bear on
his rhythms. Harriet Walter, fresh from playing Cleopatra at the RSC, read
satires, love poetry and tussles with God that drew sighs of appreciation and
occasional realisations that that's how a line should sound. PEN director
Jonathan Heawood said Donne was chosen to reinforce the fact that PEN is about
writing as much as about the mistreatment of those who produce it.
Full article at books.guardian.co.uk >>>
Posted at 08:52 PM
Fri - April 29, 2005
A Rational Quixote
Julian
Evans
In all the battles for the Enlightenment, one combatant's name is rarely mentioned. Don Quixote de la Mancha, icon of everything in humanity that is calamitously idealistic, is renowned for qualities other than rationalist courage: for kindness and foolishness; for unintended comedy and a refusal to be disenchanted; for clairvoyant lunacy and obstinate romanticism in a rotten, factual world. He rides out with Sancho Panza from his village in la Mancha to discover that the world is not as he has read about it in books of chivalry and, impervious to ridicule or failure, for 124 chapters seeks to live up to the pastoral ideal of the knight errant, that fiction of the good man. Only in the 126th and final chapter does he acknowledge the "absurdities and deceptions" of the books that inspired him and then, in an ending of unbearable sadness, finally renounces his world of fantasy, returns to his senses, and dies.
For 400 years—the first edition of the Quixote was distributed in Madrid in 1605—his story has supplied the archetype of the bookish dreamer and the outermost comic landmark of our idealism. Yet Don Quixote's achievement is surely greater than that. Without him, and without Cervantes's own constant shifting between tradition and modernity, we might have remained for longer in a world of superstition and dogma. "Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused immaturity," Kant wrote in 1784, 180 years after the first publication of the Quixote. "The motto of Enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own intelligence." On the knight's 400th anniversary we can see that this was the courage that Don Quixote has bequeathed us. His own misguided intelligence, bound to an immaturity that leads to folly, takes him on an epic of discovery in which he finally leads the reader out of his or her own immaturity. Frequently evoked as picaresque, the Quixote is more accurately seen as a Bildungsroman. It takes its Bildung in two directions, the one in which Don Quixote is shown his own folly, and the other in which the reader is invited to understand the difference between appearance and reality
In all the battles for the Enlightenment, one combatant's name is rarely mentioned. Don Quixote de la Mancha, icon of everything in humanity that is calamitously idealistic, is renowned for qualities other than rationalist courage: for kindness and foolishness; for unintended comedy and a refusal to be disenchanted; for clairvoyant lunacy and obstinate romanticism in a rotten, factual world. He rides out with Sancho Panza from his village in la Mancha to discover that the world is not as he has read about it in books of chivalry and, impervious to ridicule or failure, for 124 chapters seeks to live up to the pastoral ideal of the knight errant, that fiction of the good man. Only in the 126th and final chapter does he acknowledge the "absurdities and deceptions" of the books that inspired him and then, in an ending of unbearable sadness, finally renounces his world of fantasy, returns to his senses, and dies.
For 400 years—the first edition of the Quixote was distributed in Madrid in 1605—his story has supplied the archetype of the bookish dreamer and the outermost comic landmark of our idealism. Yet Don Quixote's achievement is surely greater than that. Without him, and without Cervantes's own constant shifting between tradition and modernity, we might have remained for longer in a world of superstition and dogma. "Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused immaturity," Kant wrote in 1784, 180 years after the first publication of the Quixote. "The motto of Enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own intelligence." On the knight's 400th anniversary we can see that this was the courage that Don Quixote has bequeathed us. His own misguided intelligence, bound to an immaturity that leads to folly, takes him on an epic of discovery in which he finally leads the reader out of his or her own immaturity. Frequently evoked as picaresque, the Quixote is more accurately seen as a Bildungsroman. It takes its Bildung in two directions, the one in which Don Quixote is shown his own folly, and the other in which the reader is invited to understand the difference between appearance and reality
Full article at prospectmagazine.co.uk >>>
Posted at 07:43 AM
Tue - March 15, 2005
16th-century young woman schemes for art
MARK I.
WEST
Louise Hawes, THE VANISHING POINT: A Story of Lavinia Fontana, 256 pages
With the immense popularity of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," interest in the Italian Renaissance is on the rise. Brown's novel suggests tantalizing connections between Leonardo Da Vinci's era and our own time, connections that have a lot to do with the status of women in our culture.
Another author who has explored such connections is Louise Hawes of Chapel Hill. Her new historical novel for young adults, "The Vanishing Point," deals with the formative years of Lavinia Fontana, one of the few female artists associated with the Italian Renaissance.
Hawes remains true to the known facts about Fontana. Born in 1552 (100 years after the birth Leonardo Da Vinci), Fontana grew up in Bologna, where her father ran an art school. He reluctantly allowed his daughter to study at his school. In time, she became the more famous artist of the two.
Although Fontana's career as a painter is fairly well documented, little is known about her childhood and early adulthood. It is this period in Fontana's life that intrigues Hawes. Her novel fills in the empty spaces in the factual accounts of Fontana's early years. The result is an appealing story of a girl who found a way to transcend the limitations most girls faced during the Renaissance.
Louise Hawes, THE VANISHING POINT: A Story of Lavinia Fontana, 256 pages
With the immense popularity of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," interest in the Italian Renaissance is on the rise. Brown's novel suggests tantalizing connections between Leonardo Da Vinci's era and our own time, connections that have a lot to do with the status of women in our culture.
Another author who has explored such connections is Louise Hawes of Chapel Hill. Her new historical novel for young adults, "The Vanishing Point," deals with the formative years of Lavinia Fontana, one of the few female artists associated with the Italian Renaissance.
Hawes remains true to the known facts about Fontana. Born in 1552 (100 years after the birth Leonardo Da Vinci), Fontana grew up in Bologna, where her father ran an art school. He reluctantly allowed his daughter to study at his school. In time, she became the more famous artist of the two.
Although Fontana's career as a painter is fairly well documented, little is known about her childhood and early adulthood. It is this period in Fontana's life that intrigues Hawes. Her novel fills in the empty spaces in the factual accounts of Fontana's early years. The result is an appealing story of a girl who found a way to transcend the limitations most girls faced during the Renaissance.
Full review at charlotte.com >>>
Posted at 08:58 AM
Fri - January 28, 2005
17th-Century Sisterhood Is Powerful
By
J. D.
BIERSDORFER
MEXICAN nuns are seldom thought of as feminist pioneers, but Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was making the case for women's equality long before the cause had a name. Born around 1651 in a village called Nepantla, Sor Juana entered a convent to escape marriage. She devoted herself to study, and achieved renown as a mathematician, poet, philosopher and playwright. Her love of learning is evident in "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" (1772), painted by Andrés de Islas 77 years after her death (and thought to be based on an earlier portrait by Juan de Miranda). The Islas painting, on loan from the Museo de América in Madrid, is on display in "Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin America Portraits," at El Museo del Barrio.
In colonial Latin America, convents were not simply religious sites; they served important social and community functions. Nuns were not always cloistered enigmas; in some cases, they were quite public figures, immortalized in artworks during their life and after their death. Sor Juana, the subject of many paintings, churned out works like the philosophical poem "First Dream" (c. 1680) or "Response to Sister Filotea" (1691), in which she argued for educational opportunities for women. She died of the plague in 1695, at age 44.
MEXICAN nuns are seldom thought of as feminist pioneers, but Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was making the case for women's equality long before the cause had a name. Born around 1651 in a village called Nepantla, Sor Juana entered a convent to escape marriage. She devoted herself to study, and achieved renown as a mathematician, poet, philosopher and playwright. Her love of learning is evident in "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" (1772), painted by Andrés de Islas 77 years after her death (and thought to be based on an earlier portrait by Juan de Miranda). The Islas painting, on loan from the Museo de América in Madrid, is on display in "Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin America Portraits," at El Museo del Barrio.
In colonial Latin America, convents were not simply religious sites; they served important social and community functions. Nuns were not always cloistered enigmas; in some cases, they were quite public figures, immortalized in artworks during their life and after their death. Sor Juana, the subject of many paintings, churned out works like the philosophical poem "First Dream" (c. 1680) or "Response to Sister Filotea" (1691), in which she argued for educational opportunities for women. She died of the plague in 1695, at age 44.
Full article at nytimes.com >>>
Posted at 09:51 AM
Thu - January 13, 2005
Don Quixote at centre of literary golden age for Spain
When Miguel de Cervantes began writing his
masterpiece Don Quixoteduring the dying embers of the 16th Century; Spain was
just coming to the end of a glorious expansionary period of empire
building.
Around the corner was an age of decadence and political, military, economic and social crisis.
Yet at the same time the dawn of the 17th Century would see a ”golden age” in terms of art and literature, as witnessed by the flourishing of the likes of poets Juan Boscan and Garcilaso de la Vega, but particularly of novelist Miguel de Cervantes.
The period was one of transition towards the end of the reign of Emperor Charles V even as the great quantities of gold made their way back to Spain as colonial booty plundered from the Americas, with wars beyond its frontiers helping to drag the kingdom into the mire.
Yet, at the same time, Lope de Vega’s comedies, Luis Gongora’s romantic poetry, the political, philosophical and humoristic writings of Francisco de Quevedo, not forgetting the famed tragedies of Calderon de la Barca, were all manifestations of a rich cultural age.
El Greco, Velazquez, Murillo, Zurbaran and Ribera added to the heady mix with their wealth of baroque paintings
Around the corner was an age of decadence and political, military, economic and social crisis.
Yet at the same time the dawn of the 17th Century would see a ”golden age” in terms of art and literature, as witnessed by the flourishing of the likes of poets Juan Boscan and Garcilaso de la Vega, but particularly of novelist Miguel de Cervantes.
The period was one of transition towards the end of the reign of Emperor Charles V even as the great quantities of gold made their way back to Spain as colonial booty plundered from the Americas, with wars beyond its frontiers helping to drag the kingdom into the mire.
Yet, at the same time, Lope de Vega’s comedies, Luis Gongora’s romantic poetry, the political, philosophical and humoristic writings of Francisco de Quevedo, not forgetting the famed tragedies of Calderon de la Barca, were all manifestations of a rich cultural age.
El Greco, Velazquez, Murillo, Zurbaran and Ribera added to the heady mix with their wealth of baroque paintings
Full article at khaleejtimes.com >>>
Posted at 11:11 AM
Mon - January 10, 2005
Don Quixote at 400: Still Conquering Hearts
By ILAN
STAVANS
The Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance is turning 400. By some accounts, the first part of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece, was available in Valladolid by Christmas Eve 1604, although Madrid didn't get copies until January 1605. Thus came to life the "ingenious gentleman" who, ill equipped with antiquated armor "stained with rust and covered with mildew," with an improvised helmet, atop an ancient nag "with more cracks than his master's pate," went out into a decaying world where there were plenty of "evils to undo, wrongs to right, injustices to correct, abuses to ameliorate, and offenses to rectify."
Cervantes catches a glimpse of the down-and-out hidalgo at around 50, the prime of one's life by today's standards but a synonym of decrepitude during what was considered Spain's "Golden Age," an appellation Cervantes complicates. The protagonist, we are told, is weathered, his flesh scrawny, and his face gaunt. We know nothing of his childhood and adolescence and only a modicum about his affairs, including that too little sleep and too many chivalry novels have addled his brain.
Almost 1,000 pages later, Don Quixote (or Alonso Quixada or Quexada, some names Cervantes gives to the hidalgo) lies on his deathbed. Finally, well into the second book, issued in 1615, Don Quixote dies -- but only after an impostor, Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, impatient that Cervantes kept procrastinating, brought out an unofficial second part that pushed the author to complete his work. Cervantes may also have been sensing that his own demise, which came in April 1616, was close.
The Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance is turning 400. By some accounts, the first part of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece, was available in Valladolid by Christmas Eve 1604, although Madrid didn't get copies until January 1605. Thus came to life the "ingenious gentleman" who, ill equipped with antiquated armor "stained with rust and covered with mildew," with an improvised helmet, atop an ancient nag "with more cracks than his master's pate," went out into a decaying world where there were plenty of "evils to undo, wrongs to right, injustices to correct, abuses to ameliorate, and offenses to rectify."
Cervantes catches a glimpse of the down-and-out hidalgo at around 50, the prime of one's life by today's standards but a synonym of decrepitude during what was considered Spain's "Golden Age," an appellation Cervantes complicates. The protagonist, we are told, is weathered, his flesh scrawny, and his face gaunt. We know nothing of his childhood and adolescence and only a modicum about his affairs, including that too little sleep and too many chivalry novels have addled his brain.
Almost 1,000 pages later, Don Quixote (or Alonso Quixada or Quexada, some names Cervantes gives to the hidalgo) lies on his deathbed. Finally, well into the second book, issued in 1615, Don Quixote dies -- but only after an impostor, Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, impatient that Cervantes kept procrastinating, brought out an unofficial second part that pushed the author to complete his work. Cervantes may also have been sensing that his own demise, which came in April 1616, was close.
Full article at chronicle.com >>>
Posted at 11:29 AM
Mon - September 27, 2004
Profs gather on Petrarch's anniversary
BY JESSICA
MARSDEN
Professors from universities around the world gathered at Yale this weekend to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the 14th century poet Petrarch's birth and discuss his work and legacy.
"Petrarch: The Power of the Word" was held in the Whitney Humanities Center Sept. 23, 24 and 25. The conference featured a keynote address by Rosanna Warren of Boston University, four panels on aspects of Petrarch's work and a concert by the Yale Collegium Musicum. Sponsors of the conference included the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Whitney Humanities Center and the Department of Italian.
Professors from universities around the world gathered at Yale this weekend to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the 14th century poet Petrarch's birth and discuss his work and legacy.
"Petrarch: The Power of the Word" was held in the Whitney Humanities Center Sept. 23, 24 and 25. The conference featured a keynote address by Rosanna Warren of Boston University, four panels on aspects of Petrarch's work and a concert by the Yale Collegium Musicum. Sponsors of the conference included the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Whitney Humanities Center and the Department of Italian.
Petrarch is recognized as the founder of humanism.
In the late Middle Ages, he spearheaded a renaissance in the study of ancient
culture and literature. He also produced writings in a variety of genres,
including sonnets, epic poetry, political tracts and moral and theological
meditations.
On Friday morning, the conference offered a panel discussion on "The Cult of Antiquities: Manuscripts and History." Angelo Mazzocco, professor of Spanish and Italian at Mount Holyoke College, presented a paper on "Petrarca's Renovatio in its Historical Context." He analyzed differences in the response of contemporary humanists and modern scholars to Petrarch's humanism.
Full article at yaledailynews.com >>>
On Friday morning, the conference offered a panel discussion on "The Cult of Antiquities: Manuscripts and History." Angelo Mazzocco, professor of Spanish and Italian at Mount Holyoke College, presented a paper on "Petrarca's Renovatio in its Historical Context." He analyzed differences in the response of contemporary humanists and modern scholars to Petrarch's humanism.
Full article at yaledailynews.com >>>
Posted at 10:33 AM
Tue - September 14, 2004
The Italian Lute
Take this Lute. It is shaped like a fishing boat
and used by the Muses. It is difficult to tune
and if any string is untuned or broken all of the beauty of the
song is lost.Thus it is with the union of Italian princes:
If any one withdraws, nothing is left.
The emblem book is a collection of symbolic
pictures or "devices," accompanied by commentary in prose or verse. The form was
popular throughout Europe in the Renaissance, particularly these images by the
Italian master, Andrea Alciato, which are reproduced here with commentary in
English translation. To learn more about emblem books—a Renaissance form
that is notably web-friendly—visit the Glasgow
University Emblem Website .
Soruce: Pittsburg Medieval & Renaissance Consortium
Soruce: Pittsburg Medieval & Renaissance Consortium
Posted at 01:49 PM
Thu - April 8, 2004
Edmunt Spenser: The Visions of Bellay.
1
T was the time, when rest soft sliding downe
From heauens hight into mens heauy eyes,
In the forgetfulnes of sleepe doth drowne
The carefull thoughts of mortall miseries:
Then did a Ghost before mine eyes appeare,
On that great riuers banck, that runnes by Rome ,
Which calling me by name bad me to reare
My lookes to heauen whence all good gifts do come,
And crying lowd, loe now beholde (quoth hee)
What vnder this great temple placed is:
Lo all is nought but flying vanitee.
So I that know this worlds inconstancies,
Sith onely God surmounts all times decay,
In God alone my confidence do stay.
T was the time, when rest soft sliding downe
From heauens hight into mens heauy eyes,
In the forgetfulnes of sleepe doth drowne
The carefull thoughts of mortall miseries:
Then did a Ghost before mine eyes appeare,
On that great riuers banck, that runnes by Rome ,
Which calling me by name bad me to reare
My lookes to heauen whence all good gifts do come,
And crying lowd, loe now beholde (quoth hee)
What vnder this great temple placed is:
Lo all is nought but flying vanitee.
So I that know this worlds inconstancies,
Sith onely God surmounts all times decay,
In God alone my confidence do stay.
2
On high hills top I saw a stately frame,
An hundred cubits high by iust assize,
With hundreth pillours fronting faire the same,
All wrought with Diamond after Dorick wize:
Nor brick, nor marble was the wall in view,
But shining Christall, which from top to base
Out of her womb a thousand rayons threw,
On hundred steps of Afrike golds enchase:
Golde was the parget, and the seeling bright
Did shine all scaly with great plates of golde;
The floore of Iasp and Emeraude was dight.
O worlds vainesse. Whiles thus I did behold,
An earthquake shooke the hill from lowest seat,
And ouerthrew this frame with ruine great.
Continued >>>
Posted at 11:10 AM
Thu - February 12, 2004
The Mind
George Wither:
A collection of Emblemes, Ancient and
Moderne, Quickened witheh metricall illustrations, both Morall and divine: And
Disposed into lotteries, that instruction, and good counsell, may bee furthered
by an honest and pleasant recreation,
1635.
>>>
Posted at 10:05 AM
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