The Italian Renaissance: Bodies, Minds, and the Human
Endlessly fascinating and controversial, at once familiar and strange, the Italian Renaissance is one of the most studied expressions of cultural history. As a crux and origin point in so many accounts of modernity, the period has been used as tool for diagnosing our evolving present. As an archive of powerful writing and extraordinary craftsmanship, it has been able to generate creativity, curiosity about the past in all its foreignness, as well as backlash and critique. What is the secret to this generativity? How can the Renaissance still act as a touchstone in contemporary art and thought?
This course offers an exploration of the Renaissance through a curated selection of short texts and art objects. Organized around four themes (Death and Rebirth, Making and Knowing, The Boundaries of the Human, New Worlds), these sources open questions about health and disease, intellectual and manual forms of work, gender and sexuality, humanity’s relations with other forms of life, and the boundaries between cultures, languages, and civilizations. Through regular writing practice and in-class discussions, participants are invited to build relationships with the material and with each other, to recognize patterns and draw connections across disciplines and epochs, establishing a foundation for future research and creative endeavor. Cities, landscapes, and personalities of the Italian peninsula are centered in the course, even as the boundaries of the Renaissance are revealed to be fluid and expansive, Mediterranean, European, and Global.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Mackenzie
Prerequisites: No prerequisites