CAS EN 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Lyric Poetry, Petrarch, Unapologetic
11 Aug 2020
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Document Summary
Petrarch wants to reconcile himself as a poet: dante has already written the great. Medieval epic, petrarch must do something else to be unique: dante looks back; petrarch looks forward, division of a cultural restructuring. Dante vs. petrarch: regarding classical pagan antiquity. Dante"s obsession with virgil, but apologetic: dante lets virgil go in order to enter heaven; petrarch doesn"t let it go. Petrarch is unapologetic in his obsession with a non-christian culture; he can"t help it: humanism: movement rooted in recovery of classical pagan literature, genre: epic vs lyric. Lyric is too individual and subversive for the community, competes with epic but normally loses. But lyric poem became dominant literary form because of petrarch"s in uence. Medieval > renaissance: idea of process over product. Dante"s view is the end point matters more than the journey. Petrarch appreciates the process, unable to let go of the things of this world: this is kind of dangerous theologically.
