Specificity of historical and cultural discourse of Germany in the age of Renaissance by example of analysisof Hans Sakss works (comparative historical aspects)

The article is devoted to a comparison of social and economic views of G. Boccaccio,G. Chaucer and H. Sachs, the three authors of the epoch of developed and late Middle Ages. The aim of the article is to discover mentalspecificity of the societies where these authors had lived. The article shows how economic, social and psychological factors influencedspecific features in mentality of European nations. For example, orientation towards trade and practically invisible borders betweenparticipate and rich town-dwellers had determined not only greater freedom in Italy but also a shade of adventurism and inclination torisky undertakings. Germany was left behind in matters of economic growth and oriented mainly to handicraft industry, its populationwas divided by almost impenetrable partitions, and the dominant features here were an authoritarian type of consciousness and fear ofrisk. In England, like in Italy, but due to different reasons, the nobility was rather active in business undertakings, and the situation led toharmonious combination of trade and handicraft industry. Attitudes to wealth and poverty were also different. Boccaccio despises thepoor and gives a lot of attention to the financial side of every matter, even when speaking about a great plague epidemic in Florence. Itcan be explained by the widespread notion that poverty and beggary were simply the consequences of laziness or folly; the notion itselfwas the result of greater social mobility and wider range of possibilities in the Italian society. Chaucer treats the rich and the poorequally, Hans Sachs approves only medium sufficiency that was gained by ones own work, but condemns wealth that was gained deceitfully.However, compared to the tendency generally expressed in German literature, Hans Sachss views are obviously softened, butagain, Sachs was influenced by the specific atmosphere of Nuremberg, filled with the Italian spirit. The article particularly stresses thespecificity of gender mentality. In Germany the woman was mainly viewed as a hearth keeper and a helper in a shop or a workshop; shewas responsible for housekeeping and child breeding. In The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer the Bath Weaver is an image of a womanartisanwho independently provides herself with all she needs. Economic independence, the result of greater personal freedom than inGermany, transforms into gender independency, the family is ruled by the woman, not by her changing husbands. Boccaccio prefers toprovide the woman with the role of a nice adornment; she spends her life in love affairs and is not bored with household or children. Heridleness is stressed in Decameron many times and contrasts with the words of a dame in the Schwank Dogs Tale who positions herselfas the mistress of the house and a mother.

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