Block II – HTAM Lecture 1 10/11
Modern Times (1400 – present)
Intentionality: to be about, the idea that culture is always about something. We, as humans,
can think about reality our thoughts can differ from reality, this is what distinguishes
humans from other living creatures.
Doubling / Decoupling: We perceive reality as two different things. Relating your memories
to a different here and now.
The idea of the genius individual creates a hierarchical and unequal culture. Originality is
praised so you have to stand out and be the best if you want to succeed. There is only one
person who can be the best, meaning that your success will always mean the loss of
someone else.
Religious cartoons:
- Explosion of religious mocking during Reformation, large production of cartoons and
written text that are meant to criticize in an ironic way.
- Erasmus’ “Praise of Folly”, critique of the catholic church
- Result of the religious conflict in the 16th century: Roman Catholic vs. Protestant
- Part of the propaganda-war
- medium: printing-press
The Nuremberg Chronicle: illustrated encyclopedia about the history of the world.
Criticism of papal authority
- The pope is the absolute head of the Roman Catholic church, top of the hierarchy in
religion but also in political and epistemological power.
- Renaissance: corruption of moral integrity
- Rumors of: (sexual) excesses, war-likeness and ostentation (Ex. Rebuilding Saint
Peter).
Saint Peter, Rome
- The rebuilding of the church was mostly financed by the selling of indulgences
- Indulgence: reduction of punishment in the afterlife.
- Salvation becomes a commodity
Reformation:
- 1517: Luther nails his 95 theses at the door of the church of Wittenberg.
- He was an Augustinian monk.
- Debate on the legitimacy of indulgences.
- Starting point of the Reformation (at least in Protestant self-understanding).
- Criticism is not new, there has always been tensions in Christianity between religion
and church.
,Lecture 2 13/11
Reformation – 16th/17th century
Desiderius Erasmus
- Dutch humanist humanism can be seen as the revival of intellectualism
- Critique on the papal authority in the Christian church
- ‘In praise of Folly” translated the Bible in Latin
- Luther translated the Bible in German
- The Bible was now accessible in the language of the ‘common people’
Original text of the Bible
- The original Greek text of the Bible is crucial because the readings of the Pope and
the church can now be checked.
- This was crucial for criticism of the Church
- The Reformation rejects the authority of the church’s hierarchy and only
acknowledges the authority of the bible.
The printing press allowed for the wide distribution of the Bible and pamphlets, translated
into many different languages this helped the Reformation.
Rhetoric: the art of convincing through writing
3 fields of rhetoric:
1. Law
2. Politics
3. Laudatory
The Republic of Letters (1500-1800)
- Allowed ‘modern’ scholars to communicate, despite differences in language,
nationality, social class and religion – in a time in which religious wars had torn
Europe apart.
- International cooperation and belief in progress remains a hallmark of scholarship to
this day
The language of the novel
- An exploration of reality, through fiction
- The language of the novel is neutral (the author doesn’t want to be involved, no
judgement/ opinion)
- The language of the novel is prose, because it follows reality describe what you
see and hear. No rhyme or metrum anymore.
- The language belongs to the characters, you hear the character not the author.
Dialogism: adapting the way you speak regarding the person you talk to. (e.g. young
children, someone in a position of power)
, Lecture 3 17/11
Don Quixote (1605-1615) – Cervantes
- Considered to be the ‘first’ novel
- Chivalric ideals suffer a heavy blow at the end of the 15th century the knights are
incapable of adapting to the new economic and social situation.
- Don Quixote is about a character who is ‘caught by fiction’.
- About someone who lives in a world of fiction and gets hurt by reality.
- Cervantes imaginatively represents a world in which the idea(l) has lost its power,
because it can no longer be related to reality.
- Whoever maintains their beliefs and ideals will retract from the real world (idee fixe)
- The humor and the inquisitive characters are what make Don Quixote a modern
novel.
The historical spaces of the novel
- Geographic (traveler’s stories)
- Social (human relationships)
- Psychic (psychology of the individual)
- Linguistic (the novel turns on itself, metanovel)
- Moving from a culture of genius to a culture of language
- Language: sign, meaning and referent the reality it refers to
- Language serving knowledge the development of mathematics
- The rise of the language of science and the science of language
Baroque (ca. 1550 - )
- One of the most important forms of this time was opera.
- The Baroque is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear,
easily interpreted details.
- Began around 1600 in Rome and spread through Europe
- Why? A craving for the restoration of the collective.
- Intensity, drama, tension, contrast, dualism, power, theatricality, energy.
3 different stylistic expressions:
1. Church baroque (catholic)
2. Civil / bourgeois baroque (protestant)
3. Courtly / absolutistic baroque
Very symmetrical / orderly art.
What do the different styles have in common?
- Stress on the collective
- Stress on morals (how to act / behave)
- Stress on the force of collective emotions
- Stress on the truth behind the appearances of reality
- A dichotomous worldview (2 dimensions of reality) which derives from the
uncertainty about boundlessness and infinity. Duality.
Modern Times (1400 – present)
Intentionality: to be about, the idea that culture is always about something. We, as humans,
can think about reality our thoughts can differ from reality, this is what distinguishes
humans from other living creatures.
Doubling / Decoupling: We perceive reality as two different things. Relating your memories
to a different here and now.
The idea of the genius individual creates a hierarchical and unequal culture. Originality is
praised so you have to stand out and be the best if you want to succeed. There is only one
person who can be the best, meaning that your success will always mean the loss of
someone else.
Religious cartoons:
- Explosion of religious mocking during Reformation, large production of cartoons and
written text that are meant to criticize in an ironic way.
- Erasmus’ “Praise of Folly”, critique of the catholic church
- Result of the religious conflict in the 16th century: Roman Catholic vs. Protestant
- Part of the propaganda-war
- medium: printing-press
The Nuremberg Chronicle: illustrated encyclopedia about the history of the world.
Criticism of papal authority
- The pope is the absolute head of the Roman Catholic church, top of the hierarchy in
religion but also in political and epistemological power.
- Renaissance: corruption of moral integrity
- Rumors of: (sexual) excesses, war-likeness and ostentation (Ex. Rebuilding Saint
Peter).
Saint Peter, Rome
- The rebuilding of the church was mostly financed by the selling of indulgences
- Indulgence: reduction of punishment in the afterlife.
- Salvation becomes a commodity
Reformation:
- 1517: Luther nails his 95 theses at the door of the church of Wittenberg.
- He was an Augustinian monk.
- Debate on the legitimacy of indulgences.
- Starting point of the Reformation (at least in Protestant self-understanding).
- Criticism is not new, there has always been tensions in Christianity between religion
and church.
,Lecture 2 13/11
Reformation – 16th/17th century
Desiderius Erasmus
- Dutch humanist humanism can be seen as the revival of intellectualism
- Critique on the papal authority in the Christian church
- ‘In praise of Folly” translated the Bible in Latin
- Luther translated the Bible in German
- The Bible was now accessible in the language of the ‘common people’
Original text of the Bible
- The original Greek text of the Bible is crucial because the readings of the Pope and
the church can now be checked.
- This was crucial for criticism of the Church
- The Reformation rejects the authority of the church’s hierarchy and only
acknowledges the authority of the bible.
The printing press allowed for the wide distribution of the Bible and pamphlets, translated
into many different languages this helped the Reformation.
Rhetoric: the art of convincing through writing
3 fields of rhetoric:
1. Law
2. Politics
3. Laudatory
The Republic of Letters (1500-1800)
- Allowed ‘modern’ scholars to communicate, despite differences in language,
nationality, social class and religion – in a time in which religious wars had torn
Europe apart.
- International cooperation and belief in progress remains a hallmark of scholarship to
this day
The language of the novel
- An exploration of reality, through fiction
- The language of the novel is neutral (the author doesn’t want to be involved, no
judgement/ opinion)
- The language of the novel is prose, because it follows reality describe what you
see and hear. No rhyme or metrum anymore.
- The language belongs to the characters, you hear the character not the author.
Dialogism: adapting the way you speak regarding the person you talk to. (e.g. young
children, someone in a position of power)
, Lecture 3 17/11
Don Quixote (1605-1615) – Cervantes
- Considered to be the ‘first’ novel
- Chivalric ideals suffer a heavy blow at the end of the 15th century the knights are
incapable of adapting to the new economic and social situation.
- Don Quixote is about a character who is ‘caught by fiction’.
- About someone who lives in a world of fiction and gets hurt by reality.
- Cervantes imaginatively represents a world in which the idea(l) has lost its power,
because it can no longer be related to reality.
- Whoever maintains their beliefs and ideals will retract from the real world (idee fixe)
- The humor and the inquisitive characters are what make Don Quixote a modern
novel.
The historical spaces of the novel
- Geographic (traveler’s stories)
- Social (human relationships)
- Psychic (psychology of the individual)
- Linguistic (the novel turns on itself, metanovel)
- Moving from a culture of genius to a culture of language
- Language: sign, meaning and referent the reality it refers to
- Language serving knowledge the development of mathematics
- The rise of the language of science and the science of language
Baroque (ca. 1550 - )
- One of the most important forms of this time was opera.
- The Baroque is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear,
easily interpreted details.
- Began around 1600 in Rome and spread through Europe
- Why? A craving for the restoration of the collective.
- Intensity, drama, tension, contrast, dualism, power, theatricality, energy.
3 different stylistic expressions:
1. Church baroque (catholic)
2. Civil / bourgeois baroque (protestant)
3. Courtly / absolutistic baroque
Very symmetrical / orderly art.
What do the different styles have in common?
- Stress on the collective
- Stress on morals (how to act / behave)
- Stress on the force of collective emotions
- Stress on the truth behind the appearances of reality
- A dichotomous worldview (2 dimensions of reality) which derives from the
uncertainty about boundlessness and infinity. Duality.
