Paradoxes of Novelty in the Renaissance Culture: the Moral and Spiritual Aspect

Abstract

The article considers several aspects of spiritual formation of literature in the first stages of the Modern Age’s artistic and literary conception through the analysis of the works of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), and other Renaissance writers. The author notes the existence of a genetic relation between the religious atmosphere of that time and its fiction, defines the forms of interaction of the literature and the religion, and determines the correlation between the spiritual-religious and literary-esthetic world views. The article places special emphasis on the consideration of parallels between the building of life and artistic position of a Renaissance writer and his religious views, parameters of a literary man’s spiritual ideal, ways of comprehension of religious subjects in the artistic and literary format.