What are the characteristics of English Renaissance literature?

The Renaissance was a profound cultural and ideological change in many European countries in the14-16th century. It is a bourgeois anti-feudal and anti-church ideological and cultural movement formed under the historical conditions of the disintegration of feudal society and the germination of capitalism in Europe, which declared the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of modern society.

Renaissance is a great impact on feudal thought by the bourgeoisie borrowing positive factors from ancient culture in a secular form, which is concentrated in the ideological and cultural fields such as philosophy, education, literature and art.

Renaissance does not simply refer to the revival of ancient slavery culture, but to destroy the feudal religious ideology centered on "God" and establish a bourgeois ideological and cultural system centered on "people" with the help of ancient cultural spirit.

Humanism embodies the characteristics of contending with medieval feudal thoughts everywhere. It opposes God with people, preaches human rights and opposes theocracy.

During the Renaissance, religious literature and aristocratic literature in European countries continued to exist, and folk poems, legends, jokes, fables, plays and other literary works were also very popular. However, after the rise of humanistic literature, it spread rapidly to all countries and became the mainstream of European literature at that time.

The European humanistic literature in this period has more distinctive national characteristics, richer national historical content and full of patriotic feelings. Humanist writers abandon Latin, which has been used to writing books since the Middle Ages, and write in their own national language, which not only makes literary works have national forms and styles, but also has a positive impact on the formation and stability of modern nation-states. Humanist writers abandoned the symbols, fables and dreams of medieval literature and attached great importance to realism. Humanist writers describe the broad social life, create a series of immortal artistic images and enrich the realistic tradition of European literature. Many genres in modern European literature laid the foundation during the Renaissance, such as sonnets in poetry, mature short stories and novels, dramas and essays that break the boundaries between tragicomedy and comedy.