Writing Gender in Women's Letter Collections of the Italian Renaissance (Toronto Italian Studies) - Hardcover

Ray, Meredith K

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802097049 ISBN 13: 9780802097040

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Meredith K. Ray is an assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Delaware.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802097049
• ISBN 13: 9780802097040
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304