Who Are These People?

Dear people of England, 16th century:

Do you even know what you believe?



Sigh.

Love,
Isaac

For King and Country

            Reading about the Reformation strengthened my opinion on how there were several interconnected events that came together for this religious rebellion to come to be. As mentioned in class there was a plague, wars, peasant rebellions, and Petrarch coined the phrase the “Dark Ages.”

            

            Out of this mess the Renaissance was a flower in the mud. With the advent of the printing press, all that was needed was the material for it. Katie Bowman in her blog does an excellent job explaining and researching the preacher climate of the time and how that was a popular form of entertainment/religious worship. So the material was there and as a result of the plague, there was no shortage of unused clothing that could be broken down and used to make the actual paper. Hence we see the machinery of literacy turn and pick up speed.

            Along with sermons came bibles. Among the many were the Vulgate bible (Latin), Wycliffe (New Testament Middle English), Tyndale (English), The Great Bible (based on Tyndale’s work after the king killed him), The Geneva Bible, The Bishop’s Bible, and the King James version. This list represents a history of martyrs and brave men wanting to make the bible more accessible to the public.

            I attribute two things to the success of the Reformation: King Henry’s divorce with Catherine and the Catholic church’s approach to change. Skip Knox wrote: “In July 1529, pressed by the emperor, Clement finally revoked the case to Rome. This now brought the business to a crisis, for if the case were heard at Rome, Henry's petition would surely be denied and then he would be stuck with Catherine... The question, then, was how and on what legal basis to defy the pope. He could do so openly and simply suffer excommunication, as other English kings had done, but this was a desperate course made doubly risky in that it would leave the door open for the religious radicals.”

            Even the King had to think twice before he decided ultimately to sever ties with the Catholic church and approve the divorce himself. Here we see a beginning of a division of church and state. Sure the King is still head of the church and there isn’t any difference from one tyrant to the other, but it set a precedent and allowed for the future of more translations of the bible. It was during this time that The Great Bible was being translated/released. The Catholic Church approach to change was the same, assert authority, keep tradition, avoid death for the church leaders at any cost. Hence, any prior reformations were either met with an accusation of heresy or they were absorbed into the church. This hard headedness would lead to an inability to meet the needs of changing times.

            The plague, death, and drastic changes in the socio-political atmosphere of the era is the driving force as to why the Reformation happened and succeeded.

Works Cited

Knox, Skip. "The Reformation." HWC, in England. Boise State University, n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.

Religious Reform: Also Known as Literacy's Birth

Often in our Mormon culture we tend to associate conflict with "contention," which as the scriptures say, "is of the devil." It may be because contention sometimes ensues from a conflict between multiple parties—or maybe just because the word have a similar sound and root word. But whatever the reason, these words are rarely seen in a positive light or context.

Yet in the midst of the 16th century's most contentious conflict, aka the Reformation, an unexpected good great thing came to pass: people started to read for themselves. Scholars have attributed this emergence of literacy to the fact that, "Protestantism, much more than Catholicism, was the religion of the Word, and therefore of reading, and because it insisted on every individual's right—indeed his Christian obligation—to experience the Word for himself" (Gawthrop & Straus). And while this emergence of literacy moved slowly and at times still excluded the lower classes, it did contribute to our society's widespread belief that literacy is crucial for a progressive society.

The single narrative or interpretation of many stories and doctrines taught from The Bible all of a sudden were accessible to the common folk and the traditional interpretations came under fire. The reconstruction of the mind as a result of literacy resulted in the deconstruction of religion as it was known in the 15th century. It's fascinating to see how change, specifically in religion here, came about from a conflict that, while contentious at times, yielded the most significant conflict-resolution tool: literacy.


Works Cited:

Gawthrop, Richard, and Gerald Strauss. "Protestantism And Literacy In Early Modern Germany."                    Past and Present 104.1 (1984): 31-30. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 15 Sept. 2015.
             <http://www.jstor.org.erl.lib.byu.edu/stable/pdf/650697.pdf?acceptTC=true>.

Hope for Humanity

When I first enrolled in the class, I was expecting new techniques of pedagogy, some digital components of coursework and a project-based structure--but I never expected a non-structured, seemingly non-focused curriculum, the daily panic-attack of a surprise homework load and the inability to plan ahead due to the non-presence of any syllabus at all. "I should drop it," I remember thinking, "I can't handle this in my last semester of school--and my first semester married--and my first semester working--and the semester when I'm in a hardcore capstone class." I stayed, because I've seen the potential for creativity in learning fluidly, with group members, in projects, and in a new medium--and I've seen the results without such encouragement... 

I made this myself. All rights out the window. 
Also, I just noticed this zombie could be in the middle of the Thriller dance. 

My mom just wrote a post for her parenting blog reflecting on her experience with pedagogy in home school with my little brother. She was amazed at the change she's seen as he's been allowed and encouraged to direct his own learning and become invested in that process: "In the past year, our Zombie child morphed into a more self-directed teenager with greater confidence in his own talent and abilities—a transformation nearly as incredible as that in the movie [Warm Bodies]!" She claims that several aspects of public schooling are "Zombie Makers," including low sleep, high stress, inefficient, focused-on-the-squeaky-wheel/overburdened teachers and, especially, a one-size-fits-all curriculum. You can read more of her essay on education-created zombie teens here. 

Albert Einstein quothe: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its
ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life thinking it's stupid."

Humanism in the English Renaissance was intensely concerned with returning to classic education techniques, which, if followed together, would enable humanity like never before in history (except of course ancient Greece, haha), and create the perfect "Renaissance Man," able to speak, write, reason and make clever conversation. Erasmus of Rotterdam said famously, "It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is," but the next happiness, of course, was extending the mental and logical facilities of man to make him, as Hamlet says in Shakespeare's play, a "piece of work:"
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals...

Hamlet ends his speech, as usual, vacillating between opinions, "—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" but the vantage point of humanism is already established. The potentiality of man, enabled through education and speech/writing training, was almost limitless. In Erasmus's treatise on rhetorical strategies entitled de Copia, he comes up with 100+ variations on just one, boring sentence: "Your letter pleased me greatly."  To see some, click here.

What does this have to do with zombies? The emphasis of humanism was on the potential of human creativity, and through its course, our class has taken a necessary pulse in that vein of thought in order to arrive where we are now: not passified, individually grade-grubbing zombies, but an enlightened (if still amateur) team of Renaissance men and women (Sprezzatura), seeking out (Brave New Worlds) sources and ideas from previous centuries (ad fontes) and repackaging, refreshing and revitalizing (Humanism) them through our new media (Typographia), relying on our faith in God (Ploughboys and Bibles) and in each other (Humanism again!) as we go.


I found myself praying for unity and a sense of purpose, along with the strength to just carry on. 

It was partially a primary text and partially an assignment that answered my prayer, I feel, and changed my experience of the course--a video introduction of Michel Montaigne's Of Cannibals. In re-vamping the situation but retaining the original themes of the piece, I found new inspiration in the Renaissance artist and writer's take on previous centuries. It was exhilarating to find that with a webcam, , dark eye shadow, creativity and a little ketchup, I could do it, too--I could excite and inspire and amuse with the rest of youtube (the modern printing press, making public and simple what had previously been elite and closed to amateurs). The results of the class's video debuts launched us into a whole new aspect of pedagogy: getting the information to the masses in formats they were comfortable with (as in Plough Boys and Bibles) and working fluidly, in teams and as a class, as we did so (just like courtiers).


Though at the beginning of the semester I was ignorant about Erasmus or humanism's claims, I did recognize the stagnant signs of zombi-fied learning in myself. I don't think such drastic measures as we took are necessary to avoid the zombie'd student--and indeed, at the beginning, I found myself slipping into a stupified, anxious sphere from the inability to plan homework assignments ahead of time--but when I started really getting to know my teammates and trusting their creativity, I felt a change in the spirit of learning that enabled real scholarship ...in the form of puppet shows. Go figure, huh?

Presentation Ideas

Ideas on presentation:

Ad Fontes:

• Since this is the “back to the sources” group, is it possible to discuss our original thoughts on what the project would look like in comparison to how it actually turned out? (eBook vs. youtube channel, or even individual thoughts when first signing up for the class in comparison to final thoughts now that the class is over)
• How to incorporate the sources into our video, whether by a separate video with just quotes, a link to the actual text, or a summary of the text.
• How did we incorporate current teaching ideas (the source) into our revolutionary youTeach idea?

Plough Boys and Bibles:  

• I was talking to Dr. Burton last Friday because I realized that I hadn’t even thought about my grade in this class since our first midterm evaluation with him back in February where we discussed our knowledge on the 6 themes. I thought that was interesting, especially considering that I am one of those people who need to know where they stand grade-wise in a traditional class. Did any of you have this same experience? This actually ties in well with the Plough Boys and Bibles theme when you examine the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. Catholics are focused on outward ordinances (in our case, that would be a syllabus and solid grading system) whereas Protestants aren’t (our class, no real syllabus and no set grading system, we were focused on the project itself and not our grade for the project). How did this focus help us in our project, and what are the positives and negatives that go along with this sort of learning when it comes to grades? (Hopefully I explained that well enough for you to understand what I’m talking about.)
• The role of religion in our class
•  Our class had different ideas when it came to this project. We could talk about the collaborative nature of our project and how that mimics the importance of the individual in the reformation (this might go better with humanism).

Thoughts from Project Guinea Pigs

• 13 year old boy – It was hard to read some things, but the quizzes were more fun than my class tests even though I got most of the questions wrong.
• 17 year old girl – She liked the storylines for every theme group. The links worked. I liked it being online because I was able to take breaks and not need to worry about missing anything.

Reflections on the Project and Plough Boys

This project has provided a really interesting learning opportunity.  Rather than knowing right at the start what our final product would look like, we, as a class, embarked on a journey.  The end result was a curriculum model and platform that I don't think any of us had expected at the start.  At the beginning of the semester, we struggled with the question of how to create an eBook that would be more than just a digital version of an anthology.  But what we created wasn't even an eBook.  Instead, our book evolved into a curriculum which took form not in writing, but in videos.  

So then we were, and remain, faced with new questions: who would use the system we had put together and how much of it would they use?  Would it be used primarily by high school/middle school instructors as supplementary material?  What about university level and homeschooling families?  If used in a classroom, what might be used?  The introduction videos? The quizzes?  It is certainly a lot of questions to answer.  My preliminary thought is that these videos would be useful as a part of an online course.  Online courses are being used more and more in today's society and the online medium would allow for easy integration of videos, online badge systems, and links to external study sources.

This learning process has also meant a lot of creative work on the part of the individual theme groups.  While we were only able to work on three of our six themes for the final product, each theme group had ideas and concerns about our individual topics.  As a member of the Plough Boys and Bibles group, I wondered how Plough Boys would have developed if we had time to create this theme's curriculum.  One of the question we had as a class generally which tied in particularly with this theme was the question of faith.  As students at a church-owned university, there is a (I think) natural desire to share our religious knowledge as well as or in conjunction with our secular knowledge.  Since the Plough Boys theme is all about the accessibility of religion, there is a ready-made connection here.  Like early Protestants, we want to make our religious beliefs accessible and understandable to others.  But we certainly don't want to cram our beliefs down anyone's throat or be so religiously focused that it adds a bias to our work.  This would limit our audience.  In short, the idea of "how much religion?" is both important to the Plough Boys theme and to our class in general.

Plough Boys Backdrop - Draft Version

On Saturday I worked on creating a backdrop for our Plough Boys avatar.  We decide that we really liked the stick figures idea and wanted to run with that, so I did a computer-drawing farm as a backdrop to match the stick-figure farm boy.  The farm boy himself is yet to be born, but here is the draft of his farm:

It's rough, I know.  But I'm going to play around with it more when I can get on a computer with some better picture features.

Hey guys! Julie Anne and I put this outline together for Plough Boys. Hopefully it can generate some thought and conversation. It mostly follows Amber's outline with a few changes and tie ins.

Plough Boy Avatars Draft

Here are some rough ideas of avatars for Plough Boys and Bibles.  There is a preacher and a farm boy.  I do, however, agree with Amber's thought about what age group we are aiming for.  I guess that's more a discussion for class.  I couldn't find the page we were supposed to post to, so I'm posting this as a draft until I can find it.

Also, I had way too much fun on the avatar creator sight...

http://dream.crysandrea.com/index.php?mode=continue&id=189630848
Preacher

http://dream.crysandrea.com/index.php?mode=continue&id=641197006
Farm Boy

The Tempest and Christian Forgiveness

"As you from crimes would pardon'd be, 

Let your indulgences set me free."

-The Tempest, Epilogue

These lines bring to close Shakespeare's play of discovery, love, and forgiveness.  Perhaps the greatest of these themes is forgiveness since it permeates both the play and the entire character of Prospero.  In the Renaissance world of renewed religious fervor, due to the Protestant Reformation, Prospero stands as an example of the ideal Christian: both forgiving and desiring to be forgiven.

Prospero's gift for forgiveness is no small matter in this play.  He is betrayed by his brother and king, exiled from his land, and left to the mercies of the sea with the young Miranda.  But the seas and Providence are merciful and Prospero and Miranda make it safely to their new island home.  Now, years later, those who betrayed Prospero are delivered into his hands.  But what is shocking is that rather than take revenge on his brother and the king for their betrayals, Prospero returns the mercy shown to him by God and forgives his enemies.  

Now, in the final scene of the play, Prospero turns the role of mercy to the audience.  Using the imagery of judgement and forgiveness, Prospero begs the audience for their applause and approval.  Watch the following clip of the British Shakespeare Company's The Tempest Epilogue and then respond to the Questions For Thought.

Questions For Thought 

1. How is the audience to exemplify the idea of mercy based off of Prospero's epilogue?

2. Prospero asks the audience to let their praise free him "as you from crimes would pardon'd be."  Is this referring just to temporal crimes?  Or is their a spiritual element to this?

3. Much of the Protestant Reformation focused on having a personal relationship with God.  Are there instances/allusions in the play which demonstrate a personal relationship between Prospero and God?

Rental Computers, Southern Baptists, and Hurtles

Boy oh boy was I nervous at first about including video as part of our project. First of all, I like standing behind the camera, not in front of it.  But then when we viewed everyone's videos and I saw how some students had really great introductory videos both being on screen and off, I felt a lot more comfortable with the idea.

I agree that there are a lot of problems that go along with including videos (or any sort of multimedia).  It's time consuming.  We have varying skills with videos, video-editing, etc.  Some of us don't have the technology to work easily with videos at home (for example, my laptop kicked-the-bucket a couple of weeks ago and I've been using a rental computer... the webcam doesn't even work).

HOWEVER.  Opening ourselves up to using multimedia is brilliant because, as someone pointed out in class, it gives us a greater potential audience.  Some people would rather read through material.  Some would rather watch a video. We can provide both.  And knowing that we have video editing software available to us on campus solves the problem of personal computers lacking that capability.  The key, I think, to keep from getting stressed out is to set and adhere to time limits.  Now this doesn't mean you close your computer after working two hours on a project regardless of whether or not it's finished, but we have to set general limits.  It's easy to go overboard.  The results can be fantastic, but we also have to look realistically at what we need to accomplish.

Thinking about videos and multimedia in regard to the themes I am working on, I think both could benefit greatly from this idea.  Brave New Worlds is rather obvious.  There is a lot you can do there with the theme of exploration.  In addition, the idea of using multimedia is, in and of itself, a Brave New World.  The way we are going about the project is already an exemplification of the theme.

Plough Boys was a little harder to think about.  You say reformation, I think old men haranguing congregations about Hell fire and damnation.  Maybe that's just the ghosts of my Southern-Baptist ancestors clinging to my mind though.  But the more I thought about it, this idea totally works.  The Reformation was all about making things more accessible to the common man.  Multimedia is one way our project becomes more accessible.  But even more than that, think about it.  Sure, a big part of the Reformation was people reading the Word of God.  An even bigger part though?  Hearing it!  They weren't just reading.  They were going to church and listening to preachers.  What a better way to exemplify this that actually have an audio/visual component???

Anyway, that's the skinny on my thinking as we move ahead in the project.  There are a lot of hurtles to jump, but I'm excited to see where this goes.

Cereal Course in Renaissance Literature

How would you like to be introduced to Renaissance literature by way of the six sides of a cereal box?

The thing about genuine cultural innovations is that they are disruptive of the status quo. They don't look serious compared to what has been authoritative in the past. When those foolish folks of the mid-1400s thought they could actually perform machine writing with their repurposed grape press, the "books" they would "write" would not be the serious sorts of things that authoritative manuscripts had been for centuries. That's why some people would have printed books properly recopied by hand into their legitimate format.

Morons.

But of course, that sort of thing is easy to judge in retrospect. And as much as it is true that groundbreaking inventions may have appeared ridiculous to the powers that be, this does not mean that everything that looks ridiculous is automatically a hidden treasure just unrecognized. Still, a Renaissance requires some experimentation, and that means you end up with a few Frankensteins along with your Rembrandts and Shakespeares.

And besides, in the Reformation, it was all about taking it to the people. Don't you think that if Martin Luther or William Tyndale could've tapped into something as popular as the cereal market, that they would have put Bible verses on the back of Cheerios boxes?

Do you think a "course" in Renaissance literature through cereal boxes is an idea that's gone soft in its milk, or does it have the fiber and vitamins to go the distance?

Make your own box of Shrew Shreddies!

It's Not Business, It's Personal

Nothing puts me to sleep faster than reading criticism written from the highly impersonal third-person perspective.  That, "As one reads this book, one finds..." makes me want to tear the essay to shreds.  The constant use of "one" or "the reader" is more distracting than any bias I might note by the writer using the personal "I."  That is one of the reasons I loved reading through some of the chapters in Writing About Literature in the Digital Age.  Not only did the writers use the personal "I" and easy, understandable prose, but they also addressed the very issue I mentioned above.  I especially enjoyed Ben Wagner's chapter about the need to make literary criticism more personal.  When he used a personal anecdote to demonstrate his point, not only was his point easier to understand, but I was also instantly more interested in what he had to say.  By making writing personal rather than business, we show that we care, and that makes a reader more interested than anything (as pointed out by Dr. Burton in chapter 2).

Just like the students whose pieces we read for today, we are undertaking a big task that may not receive much attention.  Or any attention.  But we have to set it apart in some way.  I think that reading through these chapters showed me that more than anything, we must make this personal.  We have to be personally invested in this because readers can tell when you are and that, in turn, makes them interested.  It's not all about the personal "I" writing either.  We should want to develop a personal relationship with our texts, like the Renaissance man was creating a personal relationship with books and (this is for you, Plough Boys) the Bible.  For me, I now want to really find a way to connect with each of my texts so that when I write about that text, readers will be able to tell that I am excited about what I am reading and writing.

It's not personal, it's business.
It's not business, it's personal.

Welcome to the eRenaissance Project

a mockup cover
for our prospective eBook

Let's create an eBook that explores the connections between the European Renaissance of the 15th-17th centuries and the current digital renaissance. After all, doesn't one good renaissance deserve another?

That's the premise for this project, launched by students of a Renaissance literature course at Brigham Young University in early 2013. The embedded picture is a mockup cover for our prospective eBook. As we think through our book's content and form, we will make that process public on this blog.

Already we have been using the Open Renaissance Wiki to collect and organize our content and ideas. But with the blog we can interact better among ourselves and with potential readers of our finished book.

Six Themes
We have already identified six themes, lenses by which we can understand Renaissance literature. These have proven to be handy concepts for understanding our present day, and also for conceptualizing our own project: