Last week we had our first blizzard in almost 100 years which turned out to be worth a few snow days from school. Now, my university is notorious for never closing, regardless of how many inches of snow we receive. Therefore I was quite shocked when the school shut down for three days, thereby causing me to miss my Tuesday and Thursday classes. I also missed two days of work which made me feel quite giddy. It was a mini vacation that was more than welcome. Today it was back to school and so back to the world of hillbillies and the Renaissance.
I still don't know a thing about the Renaissance. It seems that no one in class knows what is going on (well, maybe the young Adonis who sits a few seats away from me may know, as he makes an intelligent comment occasionally) since we can't hear the teacher and we can't make heads or tails of the book we are currently assigned. Today's lecture was about Florence, Parlamento, the Albizzi family and the Medici's (finally, something I have actually heard of). Oh, and let's don't forget the Signoria council, which had almost unlimited power during their two month term; whose successor was determined my drawing a name from a bag; and whose winner could not possibly be fixed, except that they must have been or the same families, the Albizzi's and Medici's, could not have ruled for so many years. What all of this has to do with the Renaissance, I can't say. Possibly background information that will aid in our understanding of the Renaissance should we ever get around to discussing the actual topic of our class.
On a more whiny note, I've spent the last few weeks battling, and mostly losing, a war against allergies, colds, or whatever it is that has me in its grip. I've felt tired, apathetic, and unmotivated. I'm going to have to suck it up and get motivated because my first book review is due next week. Nothing like a book review to ruin a great story!
4 comments:
I covered about two thousand years in my world history class last semester and as far as I can remember, the term 'Renaissance' just refers to culture and art in Europe over the 15th and 16th centuries (after the plague)! Hope this helps a tad! I saw a great BBC documentary last year about art in the Renaissance and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called! Sorry:(
P.S. David Dimbleby's 'Seven ages of Britain' is also worth a look if you can get your hands on the series!
Once you get to it Renaissance writing is very interesting, Shakespeare (obv), Ben Jonson, Marlow, I loved the Revenge Tragedy form, esp The Spanish Tragedy & Titus Andronicus, lovely & bloody! The writing really reflects the politics of the time, esp in the English renaissance period. Renaissance is a bit of a fluid term timewise, so it really depends on what your lecturer regards as the Renaissance Period.
I hope you feel better and hoorah for snow days! Wd never get them! Good luck!
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