Writing Gender in Women's Letter Collections of the Italian Renaissance / / Meredith K Ray.

• VerfasserIn: Ray, Meredith K,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2017]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)

During the Italian Renaissance, dozens of early modern writers published collections of private correspondence, using them as vehicles for self-presentation, self-promotion, social critique, and religious dissent. Writing Gender in Women's Letter Collections of the Italian Renaissance examines the letter collections of women writers, arguing that these works were a studied performance of pervasive ideas about gender as well as genre, a form of self-fashioning that variously reflected, manipulated, and subverted cultural and literary conventions regarding femininity and masculinity.Meredith K. Ray presents letter collections from authors of diverse backgrounds, including a noblewoman, a courtesan, an actress, a nun, and a male writer who composed letters under female pseudonyms. Ray's study includes extensive new archival research and highlights a widespread interest in women's letter collections during the Italian Renaissance that suggests a deep curiosity about the female experience and a surprising openness to women's participation in this kind of literary production.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- PART ONE: The Vernacular Letter in Context -- Introduction: Reading the Lettera familiare -- 1 Women's Vernacular Letters in Context -- PART TWO: The Epistolary Construction of Gender -- 2 Female Impersonations: Ortensio Lando's Lettere di molte valorose donne -- 3 'A gloria del sesso feminile': The Lettere of Lucrezia Gonzaga as Exemplary Narrative -- PART THREE: Epistolary Space and Female Experience -- 4 The Courtesan's Voice: Veronica Franco's Lettere familiari -- 5 Between Stage and Page: The Letters of Isabella Andreini -- 6 The Pen for the Sword: Arcangela Tarabotti's Lettere familiari e di complimento -- Epilogue: Writing Letters, Performing Gender -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index