The Blog of the HUSTier: Social Dynamics & Self Awareness

Why are reading this again?...

Although I am enjoying reading Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, I couldn't help but think what does this matter? There are no more courtiers, and in many ways their lives seem frivolous and banal. Then, however, I started to consider how college students might be viewed centuries in the future (perhaps because Castiglione makes repeated references to the future and speculates on how posterity will consider his work like on page 207 for example). In the future, it may seem silly that we have spent four or more years of our lives simply learning. In addition it may seem astounding that many people devote over 16 years to education. If anyone were to read a description of our HUST classes, they might laugh and consider it an exercise in futility. It might appear to be nine girls and a teacher sitting around a table waxing eloquent (or at least I would like to think that in our discussions we wax eloquent) in long discussions of the past. It could be seen as unproductive and a lofty waste of time. Others may wonder what is the point. It was in coming to an answer that I was able to develop a better understanding Castiglione's work and the nature of the Renaissance courts.

Oh yeah, because we can learn about ourselves & our world!

Both in the Court at Urbino and in our HUST/other classes, we engage in a process of self discovery, identity formation and an understanding of our newly defined self in relation to society and the world. This can then become the basis for our future decisions and can to a certain extent set the course of our lives. What we discover both about the world, and ourselves determines how we will interpret future experiences. The knowledge we gain in our education can influence what goals we pursue and the ways in which we pursue them. But this basic need, or drive, to try to gain more self-understanding and a deeper comprehension of the complex interface between the world and the individual. This is especially apparent in the Courtier when the courtiers of Urbino describe their ideas for group games.

The Game's Afoot: What we learn from Ceasare Gonzaga's Game

For example, Ceasare Gonzaga's folly/crazy quirks game in which people must determine what aspect of their everyday behavior, if exaggerated, would be craziness and which type of lunacy it would be. He explains that his game is beneficial because "finding out [our] faults [makes us] able to guard against them all the better" (Castiglione, 47).

And in a close second, Pallavicino's game

For example, Ceasare Gonzaga's folly/crazy quirks game in which people must determine what aspect of their everyday behavior, if exaggerated, would be craziness and which type of lunacy it would be. He explains that his game is beneficial because "finding out [our] faults [makes us] able to guard against them all the better" (Castiglione, 47).

They really showed us! No really, here is what the examples showed us:

It is clear from these two examples alone that the courtiers were fueled by their desire to achieve greater self-understanding while also learning how to best negotiate their social and political worlds. In fact, as a psychology student currently taking my second social psychology class I was very amazed at their rather nuanced insights into the nature of human behavior. They actually correctly identified numerous social psychological theories and principles in their analysis of different social interactions. The questions they pose in the form of games can be viewed as a metaanlysis of different case studies (i.e. each courtier's experiences are the case studies and the sharing of those experiences and the conclusions they drew from them are the metaanlysis since they essentially pooling the information to come up with a better answer). It is astounding that human nature seems to be rather resistant to change.

Conclusions of a HUSTier: Coming full circle

So while not all of the advice or conclusions in the Book of the Courtier may be helpful or directly relevant to a modern audience (I seriously doubt that any of us really need to know how to fight on a horse or serve a prince), the book's purpose and larger meaning can still be very helpful. Analyzing not only what Castiglione wrote, but also why he wrote it and why his fellow courtiers came to those conclusions forces the reader to reflect on their own lives. What would we write today? How do we define the ideal human being in our modern context? Would our determination of the perfect person differ from others' ideas? What is the purpose or significance of even contemplating perfection when as human beings we are inherently flawed? For me, I believe (and this is influenced by psychological research and evidence) that we all have ideas about ideals. We compare others and ourselves to those idealistic images and notions. For some, it can be devastating because they are not fully aware that they are even doing it. By recognizing and defining our different ideals (from the ideal self to the ideal job to the ideal spouse) we are better able to work towards it while also understanding that by their very nature ideals are unattainable. Once we grasp this notion, we can stop punishing ourselves for not accomplishing the impossible, while still pushing ourselves to get as close as possible. In his introduction Castiglione acknowledges that it may be impossible to even create a true ideal (35-36, 39-40). It is evident in his discussion, however and in the very nature and construction of the work that Castiglione still believed it was important to strive for perfection, even if we do fall short. While their may not be any courtiers let alone a perfect one today, we can still use Castiglione's text to probe our own world and perhaps set out on a path towards becoming our own ideal persons whomever they may be.