A STUDY ON THE DESCRIPTIO TEMPORUM OF "MEDIEVAL" AND "RENAISSANCE" IN ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM THE STANDPOINT OF CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS

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The problems of the description temporum of "medieval" and "Renaissance" have been approached in terms of the following three aspects : (1) substantial continuity, (2) substantial discontinuity, and (3) classification as historiographical representation.(1) The linguistic double structure of Latina and English underlay the periods that extended from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. There was indeed a difference between the so-called "medieval Latin" and Classical Latin, but the difference corresponded to the one English underwent in the same period. Cultural double structure was also discernible to the extent to which the linguistic double structure itself was maintained.(2) Medieval European culture itself was a composite entity, but as it approached the Renaissance contradictory elements, which saw their representative in those relating to pagan antiquity, began to assert themselves. The characteristic tension that holds varieties of opposites includes the subject-object complex. The aesthetics of "discordia concors" is a distinguishing mark of the Renaissance.(3) The descriptive terms "the Middle Ages" and "the Renaissance" come from the same original moment. This critical moment, however, was to be sharpened by the religious spirit of Protestantism, and further re- and displaced by a number of secular critical thoughts and views. In this dynamic process the two descriptive terms "the Middle Ages" and "the Renaissance" have been variously articulated.