Petrarkism

The Petrarchism is a medieval minstrelsy detaching new style shape that far into the modern era into lived on and z. B. greatly influenced William Shakespeare .

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) is considered to be the founder of the style . The Italian poet and humanist exerted a great influence on European poetry with his love poetry , especially the Petrarch sonnet . The decisive factor for his love poetry was his love for a certain Laura, to whom he directed his works.

The main features of the erotic situation are taken from the minnesang. The man is the plaintive and plaintive slave who suffers cruel love torments, his heart is consumed by the ardor of love. While the man is only a living dead or sissy, the woman to whom the man is drawn is cold and cruel to him and ignores him.

In the Baroque era, Petrarkism was occasionally applied the other way around. The so-called spiritual Petrarkism, in contrast to the secular, describes complaining and complaining from the perspective of women.

Typical descriptions of women are: The heart is like diamond, the cheeks are like roses, her hair is gold and her breasts are like marble balls.

Petrarkism was often criticized for its unnatural nature, which is reinforced by the constant flow of the love story in the lyrical works affected by this style.

It was shaped by a fixed scheme, stereotypical formulations, antithetics and metaphors.

literature

• Petrarkism - a European founding myth. Anthology. Göttingen 2011. ISBN 978-3-89971-842-3 .
• Klaus W. Hempfer , Gerhard Regn (ed.): The Petrarkist discourse. Scope and limits. Stuttgart 1993.
• Stephan Leopold: The eroticism of the Petrarkist. Poetics, corporeality and subjectivity in early modern romance poetry . Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2009. ISBN 978-3-7705-4901-6