Renaissance thesis?

April 3, 2007 3:29 PM

HistoryFilter: Help me think of an interesting and researchable thesis for a Renaissance History course.

I am taking a History grad course at the moment that deals exclusively with the Renaissance, and in particular with historiographical conflicts and disagreements surrounding the period. I have a 25+ page research paper to write, and am having the darndest time coming up with a topic that seems both interesting, not too daunting (i.e. not overly broad) and not too specific (i.e. I need to be able to find books and scholarly articles to draw from). The thesis needn't deal specifically with historiographical debate, although I may be wise to pick one that did. Can any history nerds out there help me?

posted by jckll to society & culture (11 comments total)

What did your professor say when you talked to him/her about it?
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:33 PM on April 3, 2007

Yeah, in my experience professors are happy to suggest possible topics (usually something they themselves have an interest in and want researched).
posted by languagehat at 3:45 PM on April 3, 2007

I once wrote a thesis on how Girolamo Cardano has been regarded through the centuries. Cardano was a weird Renaissance man, who not only wrote a kind of autobiography, but was the first to invent statistics; purely because of his gambling debts. Among many other things.

It was fun to put all those many contrasting views on him in one paper.

So, why not pick a controversial person, like say a pope?
posted by ijsbrand at 4:08 PM on April 3, 2007

I started typing ideas, but then it occurred to me that they were all ideas that I would want to use, and I'm not in your class (Renaissance ideals as applied in trade/commerce contexts, renaissance syncretism of classical ideals in some specific socio-political transaction or context, comparing actual renaissance figures to the renaissance ideal embodied in Castiglione's Il Cortegiano, and that sort of thing).

Rather than just writing about some renaissance-related thing that we come up with randomly here, it would probably be a better idea to draw from something that has been within the subject matter of the course itself.
posted by The World Famous at 4:12 PM on April 3, 2007

Well, keeping in mind what the others have written, and without knowing the details of the course, what about writing a riff on Christopher Celenza's recent book The Lost Italian Renaissance? It's brilliant and provocative, and you should have no lack of directions to follow without getting too broad or vague. Or take on Ronald Witt's "In the Footsteps of the Ancients", or Peter Godman, From Poliziano to Machiavelli. I gather from your description that the course has a historiographical focus (more so than the typical grad course?) and I infer that the paper should be historiographical as well, but maybe I'm off the mark.

Or, if history of science fits into the scope of the course, you could look at what some guy named Ogilvie has done on natural history.

But really, talk to the professor first.
posted by brianogilvie at 5:38 PM on April 3, 2007

What interests you about the period?

I am interested in some of the intellectual debates spawned by the discovery of the Americas. Are American Indians a Lost Tribe of Jews? Are Indians human at all, do they have souls? Are the plants and animals of the New World inherently inferior and degenerate compared to the Old World?

But that is me. Really, you have to review your own interests to get an idea that you can carry forward successfully.
posted by LarryC at 6:45 PM on April 3, 2007

Though I come more from a literary background, I have always found Stephen Greenblatt's work on the period to be very interesting. A google search for his name might give you some ideas.
posted by Dr. Lurker at 7:41 PM on April 3, 2007

The Renaissance. Uh, whose? Italian? Northern? English?
posted by desuetude at 7:42 PM on April 3, 2007

Just to be contrary, why not revisit the role of the serfs and their middle class strivings in the economic foundation of the blah blah etc.
posted by longsleeves at 8:31 PM on April 3, 2007

LobsterMitten and desuetude ask very pertinent questions.

I would also ask why you're approaching this as looking for a thesis (as compared with looking for a topic, or a question). IANAHN, and perhaps things work differently for history nerds, but my sense of humanities research procedure is that the thesis should emerge from an extended consideration of the evidence/sources.

You have ideas and interests--they're just "overly broad" or "too specific." Why not work with the research on one of the too-broad ones until you find a good way of narrowing it down? Or if you have ideas that interest you but are "too specific" to find any material to work with, how about getting the professor to help you brainstorm related topics where you might get more traction?
posted by Orinda at 9:37 PM on April 3, 2007

My Renaissance teacher this semester wants to know why there are cats in so many Last Supper paintings.

If you find out, please email me!
posted by bilabial at 3:00 AM on April 4, 2007