SS25 MW 3:00 – 4:20 p.m., 3cr
In this course, Prof. Mark Davis will guide you on a journey to the dark side of Renaissance culture in the Latin world.
Chances are when you think about the Renaissance the first figures to come to mind will be multifaceted Italian artists, like Michelangelo Buonarroti or Leonardo Da Vinci. They are commonly held to be the best examples of a rationalizing trend in European intellectual circles between the 15th and 18th centuries. The period is also often characterized by a new appreciation for forms inherited from classical antiquity and a focus on the centrality of the human being in life. All of that is undoubtedly true. But in this course we look to the side of all that is most brilliant in the Renaissance, into the shadows and discover the demons, sorcerors and mysterious powers that also inhabited the Latin world in the Early Modern period.
Although the Renaissance (and its cultural extension, the Baroque) is a period marked by changes and challenges to old ways of thinking in Western culture, it was also a period in which the more traditional worldview still predominated. It was a time when old ways of looking at the world mixed with newer visions and produced not just heightened human artistic and scientific prowess, but also deeper and more emotional responses to powers beyond the human; witches, monsters, the saints and marvels, both ancient and freshly discovered.
We will explore the way this mixed world is expressed in literature and other arts and along the way we will reflect on both what is strange and what is more familiar in this period of Latin cultural history. Most major works in the course are literary, but we will also consider historically significant works of non-fiction and the fine arts.
The course will culminate in a final project in which you will use the knowledge you have gained and your creativity to produce something original.
For more information on the course, contact Prof. Davis (mdavis@msu.edu ). For help enrolling, get in touch with Jennifer Gansler (gansler@msu.edu).
