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The Sword and the Pen: Women, Politics, and Poetry in Sixteenth-Century Siena
In The Sword and the Pen: Women, Politics, and Poetry in Sixteenth-Century Siena, Konrad Eisenbichler analyzes the work of Sienese women poets, in particular, Aurelia Petrucci, Laudomia Forteguerri, and Virginia Salvi, during the first half of the sixteenth century up to the fall of Siena in 1555. Eisenbichler sets forth a complex and original interpretation of the experiences of these three educated noblewomen and their contributions to contemporary culture in Siena by looking at the emergence of a new lyric tradition and the sonnets they exchanged among themselves and with their male contemporaries. Through the analysis of their poems and various book dedications to them, Eisenbichler reveals the intersection of poetry, politics, and sexuality, as well as the gendered dialogue that characterized Siena's literary environment during the late Renaissance. Eisenbichler also examines other little-known women poets and their relationship to the cultural environment of Siena, underlining the exceptional role of the city of Siena as the most important center of women's writing in the first half of the sixteenth century in Italy, and probably in all of Europe. This innovative contribution to the field of late Renaissance and early modern Italian and women's studies rescues from near oblivion a group of literate women who were celebrated by contemporary scholars but who have been largely ignored today, both because of a dearth of biographical information about them and because of a narrow evaluation of their poetry. Eisenbichler's analysis and reproduction of many of their poems in Italian and modern English translation are an invaluable contribution not only to Italian cultural studies but also to women's studies.
392 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
12 people want to read
About the author
Konrad Eisenbichler
39 books2 followersKonrad Eisenbichler is professor of Renaissance studies and past director of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College, University of Toronto.
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December 12, 2024
En genomgång av fyra politiskt viktiga kvinnliga diktare från Siena under tiden innan staden faller till Spanien. Mycket spännande för både de vackra diktutdragen och de intressanta livsödena. Avslutas med ett lång appendix med valda dikter från andra tänkbara, mindre välkända, renessansdikterskor från Siena.
Displaying 1 of 1 review