Introduction: The following project focuses on the question of perfection. Through a study of Renaissance literature and art, students may come to develop a greater understanding of what it means to search for perfection. Students will be exposed to works by Sir Thomas More, Giovanni Boccaccio and William Shakespeare. Each work will be viewed as a representative of a different facet of the quest for perfection: the search for a better way of living, reaching out to find new worlds, and the problems that come of centralized living (as the city was considered a kind of utopia, itself).
As the prominent figures of the Renaissance engaged in a newfound dialogue with the thinkers of classical antiquity, so too can our students discourse with the thinkers of the Renaissance.
Contents:
Part I: Creation - Based on More's Utopia, Book II
Part II: Exploration - An allegorical reading of The Tempest
Part III: Destruction - Boccaccio's description of the plague from the Decameron
