| Divine and Poetic Freedom in the Renaissance: Nominalist Theology and Literature in France and Italy Subjects: FRENCH LITERATURE -- 16TH CENTURY -- HISTORY AND CRITICISM; ITALIAN LITERATURE -- 16TH CENTURY -- HISTORY AND CRITICISM; ITALIAN LITERATURE -- 15TH CENTURY -- HISTORY AND CRITICISM; FRENCH LITERATURE -- TO 1500 -- HISTORY AND CRITICISM; FREE WILL AND DETE; The closely related problems of creativity and freedom have long been seen as emblematic of the Renaissance. Ullrich Langer, however, argues that French and Italian Renaissance literature can be profitably reconceived in terms of the way these problems are treated in late medieval scholasticism in general and nominalist theology in particular. Looking at a subject that is relatively unexplored by literary critics, Langer introduces the reader to some basic features of nominalist theology and uses these to focus on what we find to be "modern" in French and Italian literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. |