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Module 6 - Part
2: Explorations and Exercises
Other parts of this module include:
Index |
Part 1: Overview |
Part 3: Texts and Contexts |
Part 4: Web Resources
The Emergence of the Personal in the European Renaissance
To respond to these exercises, it helps to have some appreciation
of the cultural assumptions explored in them. Click on Web
Resources for further insights into the way social, historical,
and religious ideologies color the literary texts that we
are studying.
These questions are arranged into three color-coded categories:
Level A invites you to look closely
at some specific aspects of individual texts. Answering these
questions shows that you have read carefully and understand
the significance of important words and ideas as they appear
in context.
Level B asks you to think more
deeply about the implications of some of the details that
you have isolated.
Level C allows you to build on
the findings of the first two categories to theorize broadly
about the relationship of the text to social and historical
forces beyond the work itself.
Topics in this module's Exploration and Exercises section include:
Focus on "Of Cannibals"
Level A
- Contrast the focus of the first two paragraphs
of Montaigne's essay. How does his shift in subject
mirror the Renaissance Humanist's interest in two
different spheres of activity?
- How does he distinguish between "barbarous and savage"
and "wild" (p. 2646)?
- How does Montaigne ask his readers to judge the relative
cruelty of the treatment of prisoners of war in the Americas
and in his own France?
- What connection does Montaigne draw between the wives
of the "savages" and the biblical matriarchs? How
does he contrast marital relations in France?
- What observations did the three natives make of their
visit to Rouen?
Level B
- Montaigne spends several paragraphs trying
to find some classical explanation for the existence
of "a boundless country" (p. 2644) that the topographers
seem to have missed. If there had been no connection between
the New World and the old, how can the geneaology of the
inhabitants of the New World be explained? Why does Montaigne
praise them as surpassing the ancients' idea of
the golden age?
- What is unusual about the song of the adder that Montaigne
cites (p. 2652) to one brought up on the story of the
garden
of Eden?
- How would you describe the tone of the famous last
sentence of "Of Cannibals"? Why does Montaigne
not make a more explicit remark in closing his essay?
How does his
personality emerge in the way he renders this judgment?
Level C
- Recent scholarly articles about Montaigne's
"Of Cannibals" place the essay in its immediate
historical moment. What is suggestive about the following
pieces of information?
- The French army put down a Protestant rebellion
in Rouen on October 26, 1562. Shortly afterwards,
the three
Brazilian natives gave their opinions of
the city and country they were visiting.
- This is the only essay in which Montaigne
refers to his Protestant brother (p. 2645).
- What relevance does the brutal suppression of the
Huguenots have for the meaning of "Of Cannibals"? (Consult
the contemporary description of the St. Bartholomew's
Day Massacre on the Web Resources page.)
- Do you think Montaigne sentimentalizes the actions
of the cannibals? If so, why does he spend so much time
detailing
the way they treat their enemies?
- Montaigne says he can't remember one of the three
comments that the three Brazilian natives made about what
surprised them in France (p. 2652). If they had observed
the Sunday church services in which the Eucharist is celebrated,
what might these "cannibals" have thought
about the central act of the Catholic Mass? Why might
it have
been convenient for Montaigne to have forgotten what
the Amerindians said?
Focus on "Of Coaches"
Level A
- Toward the middle of this virtuosic essay,
Montaigne says: "We do not go in a straight line; we
rather ramble, and turn this way and that. We retrace our
steps. I fear that our knowledge is weak in every direction;
we do not see very far ahead or very far behind" (p.
2665). How is this a formula for the way "Of Coaches" is
constructed?
- For the first few pages, Montaigne more or less addresses
the topic of motion sickness, a physical state that he
recognizes
from personal experience. How does he reason about
the causes of this infirmity? How does his thought pattern
relate to
his opening gambit?
- How do Montaigne's reflections on the uses of
coaches in the ancient world provide an opportunity for
him to discuss
governance and its abuses?
Level B
- Montaigne refers explicitly to his "Cannibals" (p.
2668). Explain how the themes he develops in that essay
are expanded on and made much more particular here.
- How would you characterize Montaigne's view of
the New World and the peoples who inhabited it before
the conquest
of the Americas?
- Discuss the length of the sentences in the paragraph
near the end of this essay that begins "We have these
narrations from themselves" (p. 2669), which follows
a short paragraph explaining the actions of the European
conquerors. What holds the clauses together? Why do
you
think Montaigne delays reporting the reaction he attributes
to the kings of Castile?
- He returns to the ostensible theme of his essay in
a final paragraph that takes a typically elliptical path: "Let us fall back to our coaches" (p. 2670), says
the essayist, only to remark that the Incas used none. How
is the intellectual sensation of reading this essay related
to the problem of "interrupted motion" that
causes the seasickness with which the essay begins?
Level C
- Explain the five successive suns of Mexican
mythology that Montaigne outlines at the end of "Of
Coaches," and compare it to the arc of development
in the Popol Vuh found at the conclusion of
Volume C. How is this in itself a model of an essay—trying
out possible options?
- How does Montaigne judge "the pomp and magnificence" (p.
2670) of the ancient and the New World that the topic
of coaches has led him to exemplify?
- With all the far-ranging details offered here, from
spectacles in the amphitheatres of Rome to treasures
in contemporary
Mexico, how is it possible to say that Montaigne
himself remains the subject of his book? How does the
portrait of
a mind at work emerge from reading these essays?
Focus on Petrarch's "Letter to
Dionisio da Borgo San Sepolcro"
Level A
- What made Petrarch decide that he wanted
to climb Mount Ventoux?
- Explain the process of reasoning that led Petrarch
to ask his brother Gherardo, rather than one of his friends,
to accompany him on his climb. How does his evaluation
of
his potential companion reveal how important this
journey was to him?
- What is the difference between the way the two brothers
attacked their climb?
- What is the significance of the person to whom Petrarch
addresses this letter?
- As he contemplates the view that he had worked so
hard to achieve, does Petrarch enjoy the satisfaction
that he
had expected to feel?
Level B
- Petrarch wrote this letter in 1336, almost
exactly two hundred years before Montaigne was born.
How does his description of the ascent of Mount Ventoux
cover
the kind of mental territory that Montaigne deals
with in his essays?
- Recollection of classical authors had led Petrarch
to undertake the ascent; but he turns to the Confessions of
St. Augustine after he reaches his goal. How does this
change in reading matter influence his understanding
of
his experience?
- How does Petrarch interpret his journey and the way
in which he tried to achieve it?
- Petrarch's letter contains a narrative that he seems
to have allegorized in revising the original. How would
you contrast Montaigne's way of making meaning
out of his thoughts by weaving them together to the
materials used
by Petrarch?
Level C
- Petrarch's brother Gherardo, a footnote
tells us, became a monk in 1342. How does the difference
between the ways the two brothers traveled up the mountain
become part of the allegorical significance that the
poet
ultimately found in his journey?
- Petrarch met Laura in 1327; by the time he climbed
Mount Ventoux, he was deeply engaged in writing sonnets
about
her. How does the self-examination that he enters
into as he climbs Mount Ventoux reflect the conflicting
personal
emotions that undermine his efforts to allegorize
his experience in the medieval mode and indicate why
we regard him as a
forerunner of the Renaissance?
Focus on Hamlet
Level A
- Hamlet begins the famous soliloquy "To
be, or not to be" (3.1.56–87) with a set of metaphors
drawn from the vocabulary of war. Why is it difficult to
envisage the means by which he speaks of ending "a
sea of troubles"? How does his language reflect
the depth of his psychological distress?
- In these same lines, Hamlet contemplates a topic in
a manner that resembles Montaigne's in his essays. Point
to some of the moments in which his thoughts change direction,
as so often do Montaigne's. What happens, for example,
when Hamlet repeats the words "To die: to sleep"?
How does his mind move in two different directions
in contemplating
their import?
- What is the significance of the visual metaphors Hamlet
uses in speaking of "the native hue of resolution"
and "the pale cast of thought"? How would
a painter render these contrasting shades?
Level B
- How does Hamlet behave during the soliloquy
that begins with "O what a rogue and peasant slave
am I!" (2.2.501)?
- When Hamlet gives direction to the traveling players
who are about to perform "The Murder of Gonzago"
before Claudius and the Danish court, he exhorts them to
pursue truth in their acting by holding "the mirror
up to nature" (3.2.18–19). Does his own performance
in "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" live
up to the scrupulous notions of modesty and containment
that he offers here?
- Where in Hamlet do we find contrary assumptions
about the accuracy of visual images? What does Hamlet
enter
into his tablets after he hears the ghost's tale
of murder in the orchard?
Level C
- Explain how Hamlet's instructions to
the players reflect the Renaissance theory of painting first
codified by Alberti. In what sense do they reflect a modern
understanding of the significance of each individual's
lived experience?
- Mirrors were rare and expensive objects in the early
modern era. How reliable were the images captured in
them?
What happens, for example, to the face of the painter
Parmigianino in his Self-Portrait in aConvex Mirror?
How do such visual representations complicate the faith
that Hamlet at times seems to show in the possibility
of
reading truth from surface evidence?
- Why does Hamlet decide that watching Claudius's reaction
to "The Murder of Gonzago" ("if he but blench,
/ I know my course") will prove whether he has
in fact murdered his father? When Gertrude watches
Hamlet watching
the ghost that she does not see in the scene in her
closet, what does Hamlet look like to her? Can we trust
appearances
in this play?
- How does Polonius diagnose Hamlet's troubles?
Why is Claudius not satisfied with his analysis?
 There's
something in his soul
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger. (3.1.158–61)
What does the metaphor of hatching suggest about
the novelty and complexity of Hamlet's condition?
Compare the neatness of the Humors psychology described
in selections in Web
Resources. Would Hamlet be so singular
a work of literature if the Prince's malady
could be explained by the standard medical terms
available in 1600?
Focus on Tu Fu's "My Thatched
Roof is Ruined by the Autumn Wind"
Level A
- The first part of this poem tells a narrative
that faithfully reflects the title. Briefly summarize
the events described.
- How does the poet present himself in this narrative?
What kind of self-portrait is he willing to draw?
- What shift in subject and perspective occurs in line
37? How do lines 33–36 serve as a bridge between
the two parts of the poem?
Level B
- How does our view of the speaker change when
we learn that Tu Fu is living with his family in
this hut?
- What kind of human qualities do we begin to discern
in this speaker, who has begun by portraying himself
with such
self-deprecation?
Level C
- How would you describe the subject of the
final section of the poem? Whom is the poet concerned about
here?
- How is autobiography linked to social commentary in
Tu Fu's poetry? Would you call him a skeptic in the
way that Montaigne is skeptical about the way the world
is organized?
Focus on Texts and Contexts
Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (1436)
Level A
- How does Alberti order the evidence he selects
in order to demonstrate the power of painting?
- How does nature provide human painters with a model
to follow?
- How does Alberti analyze the key elements of painting?
Level B
- Alberti's treatise is a very early contribution
to Renaissance thought. He speaks often of his interest
in istoria, which may be translated as narrative.
What kinds of paintings does he seem most interested
in?
(Look at a work by Masaccio to see what Alberti
may have had in mind.)
- When Alberti speaks of placing a veil between the
eye and the thing seen, he seems to be referring
to a visual
grid that will help a painter plot proportions
and align objects in space. How is his embrace of such
a
tool typical
of the early modern period? Would a medieval
artist have been as interested in assuring an accurate
representation
of such details?
Level C
- In the opening of Book 2 of his treatise,
Alberti points to the high honor in which painting
has always been held, and suggests that "Narcissus who was changed
into a flower . . . was the inventor of painting. Since
painting is already the flower of every art, the story of
Narcissus is most to the point. What else can you call painting
but a similar embracing with art of what is presented on
the surface of the water in the fountain?" We may wish
to go further and say that the tragedy of Narcissus exemplifies
the challenge of self-portraiture. Read Chapter 3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses and
discuss the implications of Tiresias's
prophecy to the mother of Narcissus. Why would the beautiful
young man have had a long life only if he had never known
himself? What is the danger of looking at one's own
image in the mirror? How does Montaigne deal with self-knowledge?
How does Hamlet?
- Do you think Alberti would better understand the
development of thought in Petrarch's "Letter" or in Montaigne's Essays?
Explain the relevance of istoria to both
writers.
- Alberti suggests that the goal toward which the
painter should strive in animating a figure is to show "every
part in motion." Write an essay that demonstrates how
Shakespearean plays and/or Montaigne's Essays meet
this standard.
Shakespeare, sonnets 46 and 47
Level A
- What is the conflict between mind and heart
described in these paired sonnets?
- What two meanings might be assigned to the word "lie" in
46.5?
- What kind of activity is imagined in Sonnet 46 that
engages a defendant, a panel, and a verdict? How
is this an effective
way to depict the mind in action?
Level B
- The speaker in Sonnet 47 says that his eye
is "famished for a look" and turns to a "painted
banquet" for nourishment. What are the connotations
of "painting" in Hamlet? (See, for example,
Hamlet's exchange with Ophelia at 3.1.137)?
Level C
- How do these two sonnets reveal the ambivalence
with which Shakespeare seems to have viewed pictorial
images?
- How do these sonnets demonstrate the influence of
Petrarchan images of inner tension on later writers?
Explorations of Renaissance music
Level C
- Compare and contrast a choral work from the
Middle Ages with a Renaissance piece by Palestrina.
- Listen to an aria from one of Monteverdi's surviving
operas and explain how the melody and the words work together
to create the impression of a living, vital human being
in the grips of a strong emotion.
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