The European Renaissance was an age of revolutions: in thought and discourse, politics and government, philosophy and religion, science and technology. According to an older view of history, these revolutions inaugurated the modern world, thus giving birth to a glorious age of enlightenment and progress. More recently this narrative has been seriously challenged from a variety of standpoints, including from feminist, postcolonial, and global paradigms. The value of Western culture has been deconstructed, the history of “the West” and its place in global history soberly re-evaluated. In 2017 a new study appeared that invites us to revisit the Renaissance and its importance for world history: Bernd Roeck’s Der Morgen der Welt. Integrating comparative and counterfactual approaches, it asks what was special about the Renaissance, why it did not happen elsewhere or at another point in time, and what its legacy is today. It is one of the most powerful recent investigations of this great age of revolutions.
We will read this book closely in English translation in order to engage as critically as possible with its arguments. The language of the course is English. Knowledge of German is helpful but not necessary. |
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Dr. Patrick Baker