Love, Lust and Literature in REnaissance Italy
Lecturer: Dr Will Visconti
Course Description
The Renaissance is often perceived as a high point of Western culture; a fertile period for ideas and creative foment in philosophy, literature and theatre. At the same time as there were neo-Platonic treatises and works of poetry that dealt with the ineffability or transcendence of love and human emotion, there were contemporaneous works composed to exalt the less refined and decidedly more earthbound aspects of relationships.
This course focuses on four authors from across the spectrum of Italian Renaissance litertature's engagement with love and lust during the first half of the sixteenth century. From the bawdy to the downright pornographic, playwrights like Angelo Beolco (better known as Ruzante) or satirists like Pietro Aretino composed plays, poems and prose works that focused on sex more than love, and made light of sexual hypocrisy. In contrast is the writing of philosophers such as Marsilio Ficino, who is credited with the origin of the term "Platonic Love". Closer to Ficino's ideals than Aretino's is the poetry of Tullia d'Aragona, a celebrated courtesan and poet who spent time at the court of Cosimo I de Medici.
Course Content
Session 1: Pietro Aretino
Session 2: Angelo Beolco (Ruzante)
Session 3: Marsilio Ficino
Session 4: Tullia d'Aragona
Lecturer
Dr Will Visconti has a PhD in French Studies and Italian Studies from the University of Sydney. His research ranges across numerous disciplines - literature, history, cultural studies, theatre and art history. He has taught art history, French and Italian at the University of Sydney, where he is an Adjunct Lecturer, and at Central St Martins, London. His research focuses on sex, the arts and transgression in history, and how contemporary performance continues to draw inspiration from historical performers and venues.
Course Structure
4 x 1.5 hour sessions
Each session includes a lecture and time for questions and group discussion
Course Dates
Session 1: Friday 7 August, 10:30-12:00pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 2: Friday 14 August, 10:30-12:00pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 3: Friday 21 August, 10:30-12:00pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Session 4: Friday 28 August, 10:30-12:00pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Price
A$100
REquirements
This course does not require any assumed knowledge, only a willingness to learn and a general interest in the topic.
Sessions require access to ZOOM (which is free), a device with a camera (such as a tablet or computer with a webcam), and an internet connection.