The Renaissance.
By the term Renaissance New Birth used in its narrower sense, is meant that new enthusiasm for classical literature, learning, and art which sprang up in Italy towards the close of the Middle Ages, and which during the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave a new culture to Europe. [By many writers the term is employed in a still narrower sense than this, being used to designate merely the revival of classical art; but this is to depreciate the most important phase of a many-sided development. The Renaissance was essentially an intellectual movement. It is this intellectual quality which gives it so large a place in history.
How Greek and latin became part of the english languageA large percentage of modern English vocabulary comes from classical Latin and Greek which accounts for the common misperception that Latin and Greek are somehow earlier versions of English. Today's page will attempt to account for the Latin and Greek elements of English. And, since those elements are so important, particularly in learned (academic, scientific, professional) English, it's worth knowing something about the history of Latin and Greek, in order to place the development of English in its European context.
The basic reason for the many Latin and Greek words in modern English is that in their own time, the classical versions of these languages were, like English today, international languages with a dominant effect on the educational systems and culture of the rest of their world. Just as it's hard to think of a world language today escaping at least some influence from English, so it's hard to think of any western European language that has evaded the influence of Latin and Greek at some time in its past. |
What is Tragedy? Tragedy is the imitation of an action mimesis according to “the law of probability or necessity.” Aristotle indicates that the medium of tragedy is drama, not narrative; tragedy “shows” rather than “tells.” According to Aristotle, tragedy is higher and more philosophical than history because history simply relates what has happened while tragedy dramatizes what may happen, what is possibile according to the law of probability or necessity.” History thus deals with the particular, and tragedy with the universal. Events that have happened may be due to accident or coincidence; they may be particular to a specific situation and not be part of a clear cause-and-effect chain. Therefore they have little relevance for others. Tragedy, however, is rooted in the fundamental order of the universe; it creates a cause-and-effect chain that clearly reveals what may happen at any time or place because that is the way the world operates.
My discussion post on a modern tragic hero: Johnny Cash |
Johnny Cash from Walk The Line is a tragic hero. When Johnny Cash was young he enjoyed hearing music. Then as he grew he went into the Air Force after his service he married his first wife Vivian and had two girls. Johnny then was a appliance salesmen and had a small band on the side known as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee two they made their first record with Sam Phillips. After that his songs started hitting the charts as a music star he began getting into alcohol and soon after that all types of drugs. The drugs led him to the streets where he would walk around looking dead as a singer he met his second wife June Carter. June helped Johnny kick the drugs and the alcohol out she made him realized he didn't need those things in his life he later became christian and part of a church. Johnny rose up to the top again and made many new songs and records. Johnny Cash died on September 12, 2003 |