Western History Handouts

(1) Tell simply the background and development of the Renaissance.

The Renaissance emerged when social instability, economic sluggishness and intellectual
depression became so intolerable that most of the people, especially the intellectuals could no
longer accept the worsening situation.
It was no accident that it first occurred in Florence where the early signs of capitalism
appeared when social chaos, political disputes and military clashes divided the country into many
city states and hindered the further development of economy. No wonder more and more people
began to suspect the justification for those who held the power, both politically and intellectually.
Consequently, the feudal autocracy and the Christian Church became the targets of criticism and
attack.
The Renaissance as a movement first started in Florence and then expanded to Venice, Rome
and other Italian cities before it swept the rest parts of Europe. Painting and sculpture were the
most sensitive fields to the change with their subjects and tastes, shifting from dullness,
stagnation, lack of emotion and divinity to dynamics, enthusiasm and humanitarianism. Literature
and ideology soon followed as other important areas proceeded and the movement further
separated itself from feudalistic tyranny, ecclesiastic bondage and sought intellectual freedom and
ideological emancipation.
(2) What are the major features and achievements of the Renaissance? Give examples.
The Renaissance is characterized by seeking ideological emancipation, intellectual freedom
and political awareness, based on cultural production and religious reformation. All these were
undertaken or unfolded gradually but widely, extending its influences to every corner of Europe,
with more and more people getting involved.
The achievements were seen principally in six areas, namely, painting, sculpture, poetry,
fiction, drama and religious reformation as well as the change in the cultural and intellectual
climate. Instances could be located in these areas, such as the huge change of subjects and styles
in painting. The medieval painting used to centre on depicting Jesus Christ and other Christian
subjects, not only effecting similar and the limited subject matter, but also depicting stylistically
facial expressions and manners. The great artists in the Renaissance started to focus on the images
with individualistic temperament, highlighting humanity instead of divinity, thus breaking away
from the medieval frozen models and linking classicalism with human nature as the centre of their
representational work.
(3) Say something about the significance of the Renaissance with respect to its influences on
the later development of social and economic and intellectual conditions in the West.
The most significant aspect of the Renaissance is, perhaps, its reassertion of the necessity for
ideological emancipation and intellectual freedom, though it was still limited in comparison with
the later attitude to the liberation of the mind, as characteristic of the Enlightenment.
 Due to heavy pressure from the feudal autocracy and tight ecclesiastic control by the
Christian church over almost every domain in the medieval period, social development showed

little change. Intellectual progress almost came to a stop, which doubtlessly checked the advance

of the Western civilization. Therefore, the people in this period eventually took action to oppose
the accepted subservience to authority by evoking classical idea as a major weapon to show their
dissatisfaction, as exemplified by the painters and writers of the period. It demonstrated their
courage and wisdom to proceed with the actions against the divinity and autocracy, motivating the
people in general to break away from traditional conventions and seek ideological emancipation
and reformation.
With those early achievements in art and literature, the longing for change and progress
began to spread to political and economic domains. More and more people became conscious of
the importance of the Renaissance and joined in the movement which was gaining momentum in
intellectual and cultural spheres. Ideological and cultural developments certainly offered
inspiration to the people in other areas. The emergence of early capitalist modes in the economy,
for example, showed a totally different way of production and required more freedom of
employment and management and less intervention from outside in order to gain more profit. The
religious people also wanted to have free choices with their personal beliefs and actions. All these
were under way and prepared for some more changes which were to be realized in the due course.
Obviously, the need for further emancipation and actions was demonstrated in the Renaissance
and soon confirmed by the coming Religious Reformation, the Bourgeois Revolution and the
Industrial Revolution. All these worked successfully and solved the problems which the
Renaissance had posed. Without long-term preparation and intellectual progress, which provide
the necessary conditions, especially in ideological cognition and physical circumstances, one
could hardly have expected the subsequent accomplishments in political, economic and religious
areas.
(4) Please introduce William Shakespeare, the most accomplished writer during the
Renaissance, and his great works.
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest
writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s
national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist
of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have
been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any
other playwright.
His writing career falls into three phases. His early phase coincided with the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I, marking the ascent of capitalist development. The major works he wrote in this period
include A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night.
The 2nd phase occurred in a period when political conflicts and contradictions were
intensified between the feudal forces headed by the royal family on one side and the newly
emerging capitalist forces and the ordinary people on the other. Most of his writings during the
period were tragedies, embracing Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Anthony and
Cleopatra.
The 3rd phase focused on the writing of plays related to myths, such as The Winter’s Tale and
The Tempest. Shakespeare’s success came from his understanding of historical, social and
intellectual circumstances of England, based on his humanist values and pursuit and represented
by a large number of impressive characters with a strong sense of individual identity.
(5) Please illustrate the features of social ideology during the Renaissance and its
representative figures.
The social ideology was based on individual interests and characteristics of individualism.
The core of social ideology during the Renaissance was humanism, which reflected strongly the
wishes and desires of the civilian class and essentially an expression of the bourgeois
individualism and hedonism. Humanism contributed remarkably to the later social and intellectual
advances in the Western world. Representative figures are Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio.
(6) Please clarify the significance of the Religious Reformation in the Western world.
The Reformation made great contribution to the social and intellectual development of
Western civilization.
a. With the far-reaching political, economic and social effects, the Reformation became a basis for
the founding of Protestantism, which emerged as one of the three major branches of Christianity.
b. The Reformation was the most effective and influential in terms of the results it achieved. It not
only contributed to the ecclesiastical development of Christianity, but opened the way to much of
the subsequent social and intellectual progress of the West.
(7) Please analyze the features of classicism.
a. Drama and other forms of arts tended to imitate and reflect those of the Graeco-Roman
civilization.
b. Literature of this period is termed neoclassical, because it sought beauty of form rather than the
content.
c. Culture in this period not only exhibited the productions of artistic works, but promoted the
development of life styles, such as dress and speech.
d. As commonly opposed to Romanticism, the 17th-century classicism in France implies a social
ideal.
e. Classicism tends naturally to be expressed by the adoption of certain classical forms.
(8) Give an account of the settings and general features of the Enlightenment.
The fact that the Enlightenment first occurred in France was ascribed to the deterioration in
economic, political, social and cultural conditions in the 18th-century France. The French people
strongly demanded that the declining situation be arrested and reforms be carried out. Under such
circumstances, progressive intellectuals began to think more seriously about the solutions to the
crises and tried to resort to intellectual and social means. This movement also asked for more
political power to the people as the bourgeoisie joined in with its economic support and thus the
cultural movement tinned with political colour as a bourgeois mark. On the other hand, the
dissemination of scientific knowledge and the influences of British empiricism also immensely
heightened intellectual and political awareness of the people in general. This prepared the political
basis of the bourgeois revolution to follow.
The Enlightenment featured anti-autocracy and anti-Christianity, claiming freedom, equality,
civic rights and the wide dissemination of progressive and scientific ideas.
(9) The significance of the Enlightenment:
The Enlightenment, a period that Thomas Paine called the Age of Reason, was a great
movement giving much impetus to the growth of social and cultural forces of the human
civilization. With rationalism as the core of the Enlightenment, it cast doubt upon and strongly
criticizing Christian theology and religious obscurantism, while promoting the dissemination of
the new ideas of freedom, equality and democracy among the masses of people. This brought
under serious attack the feudal autocracy and Christian Church hegemony, thereby securing a
fairly high level of intellectual development for the broad masses in general and laying a solid
political and intellectual foundation for the approaching bourgeois revolution. The ideas of liberty,
equality and democracy started from the Enlightenment have affected the human behaviors in the
historical process towards the modern world.
(10) To what extent do you think that the Enlightenment is linked to the drastic changes
leading to the modern world? Make a comment.
The Enlightenment initiated the drastic changes leading to the modern world. It served as a
continuation of the Renaissance and provided the impetus for the successive growth of social and
cultural forces of modern civilization. This movement is characterized by reason, casting its doubt
upon and strongly criticizing Christian theology and religious obscurantism while promoting the
dissemination of the new ideas of freedom, equality and democracy among the masses of people.
This brought under serious attack the feudal autocracy and Christian Church hegemony,
thereby securing a fairly high level of intellectual development for the broad masses in general
and laying a solid political and intellectual foundation for the approaching bourgeois revolution.
It was precisely the progressive ideas of the Enlightenment, such as its criticism of feudal
autocracy and Christian corruption, and its replacement with the social contract and the division of
state power, that offered the bourgeoisie and the lower-class people the theoretical weapons to
overthrow the old regime, which in fact pushed forward socially and intellectually the human
civilization into the modern age at an unprecedented pace.
(11) Say something about the origin and the major concerns of Romanticism. Give examples.
Romanticism originated out of the craving for individual freedom by the young intellectuals
who could not tolerate ideological and intellectual oppression derived from classicism and
rationalism imposed by the ruling class and traditional culture, as was demonstrated in Germany
where the Storm and Stress Movement occurred under Rousseau’s influence which attracted many
followers including Goethe and Schiller.
To some extent it was a reaction against the Enlightenment and the 18th-century rationalism
and materialism in general. It demanded more reasonable attention to human passion and
individuality as a way to reach real human emancipation and freedom.
The major concerns of Romanticism comprised individualism, emotionalism, worship of
nature, fascination with the alien aspects of foreign lands, enthusiasm for nationalism and often
expressed an air of disillusionment.
(12) What do you think of the similarities and dissimilarities between realism and
naturalism?
The similarities of realism and naturalism lie in the fact that they both aim to describe real life
and try to reveal the nature of social reality, especially the dark side of human society. But in the
ways of representation, they differ in the following aspects: first, the naturalist writer does not
focus on a typical environment or typical characters for representation of reality, and instead, they
would attempt to depict real life as it is by sticking to the inherent factor which would usually lead
to the cause or motivation of certain events or behaviours; second, the naturalist writer emphasizes
more of the influence of environment on human nature and behaviour by exposing the dark and
evil aspect of human society which is not just similar to social realism but even more violent and
barbarous and emotional.