A Literature of Their Own? Women Writing-Venice, London, Paris-1550-1700, 2001

This project grew out of the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, A Literature of Their Own? Women Writing—Venice, Paris, London—1550-1700, convened in July 2001. It was designed as a syllabus for a graduate-level course in a Liberal Studies program for students without a strong background in Early Modern Europe. The course includes women writers in Italy, France, Spain and England and is organized primarily by genres. Participants meet for ten three-hour classes over the course of the semester and also interact through the use of Blackboard, an interactive on-line program, which can be accessed through the Internet.

Syllabus

Content:

This course aims to recover the tradition of early Modern European women writers. We will read and discuss a variety of selections from women writers in Italy, France, Spain and England from 1450-1750. All readings will be in English.

Learning Objectives:

- to determine whether we can speak of “women’s writings” as distinct from “men’s writings”

- to examine the political, economic and social forces that shaped women’s writings during this period

- to understand why women’s writings were underrepresented in the literary canon for so long

- to study representative examples of the literary genres most frequently employed by women writers

Methods:

Classes will be devoted primarily to group discussion of selected literary texts and secondary sources, with some lecture to situate the literature in context. We will use Blackboard, an interactive on-line program, which can be accessed through the Internet

Requirements and assignments:

Careful and complete reading of the works of literature and selected secondary sources which form the content of the course, as evidenced by

full participation in ten class meetings, with enlightened discussion of the material (30%)
weekly submission of a short paragraph on Blackboard. This can be in the form of an original observation or question or a response to someone else’s submission. (10%)
six short (500-550 words) reflective essays (one after the first three classes and then one on each of the genres: poetry, drama, religious writings, letters/ diaries/autobiographies, short stories) (30%)
one culminating essay or term paper (8-10 pages) which can incorporate material from the previous reflective essays (30%)

REQUIRED TEXT AND MATERIALS:

Cary, Elizabeth. The Tragedy of Mariam: The Fair Queen of Jewry. Ed. Barry Weller & Margaret Ferguson. Berkley: University of California Press, 1994.

Cavendish, Margaret. The Blazing World and Other Writings. Ed. Kate Lilli. London: Penguin,1994.

Mme de Lafayette. The Princess of Clèves. Ed. John D. Lyons. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.

Stortoni, Laura Anna & Mary Prentice Lillie. Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans. New York: Italica Press, 1997.

Reader (to be distributed by instructor at first class meeting)

(A copy of all secondary sources indicated in the assignments can be found on Blackboard. Copies are also on reserve in the library.)

Week 1

Renaissance women’s lives and common notions about women

Assignment

Read at least two of the following and be prepared to discuss them in class:

Chojnacki, Stanley. “Daughters and Oligarchs: Gender and the Early Renaissance State.” In Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy. Ed. Judith C. Brown & Robert C. Davis. New York:Longman, 1998, pp. 63-86.
Cohn, Samuel K. Jr. “Women and Work in Renaissance Italy. “ In Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy. Ed. Judith C. Brown & Robert C. Davis. New York:Longman, 1998, pp. 107-126.
Hutson, Lorna. Feminism and Renaissance Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp.1-17.
Jordan, Constance. “The Terms of the Debate,” In Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990 pp. 11-64.
Kelly, Joan. “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” In Feminism and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Lorna Hutson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 21-47.
King, Margaret. “The Women of the Renaissance.” In Renaissance Characters. Ed. Eugenio Garin. Trans. Lydia Cochrane. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 207-249.
Maclean, Ian. “The Notion of Women in Medicine, Anatomy, and Physiology.” In Feminism and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Lorna Hutson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 127-155.
Maclean, Ian. The Renaissance Notion of Women: a study of the fortunes of scholasticism and medical science in European intellectual life. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp. 30-46 [medical/scientific views about women] and 54-67, 75-81 [social and legal views].
Wiesner, Merry. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 9-38 [ideas and laws regarding women] and 82-86 [women’s economic role]

Additional Bibliography

Ferguson, Margaret W. Maureen Quiglan, and Nancy J. Vickers, eds. Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Hufton, Olwen. The Prospect before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe, 1500-1800. Westminster: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998 (esp. chapter 11, “Corresponding Gentlewomen, Shameless Scribblers, Drudges of the Pen,” pp. 424-462.

Klapisch-Zuber, Christineet al. Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Monsom, Craig A., ed. The Crannied Wall: Women, Religion and the Arts in Early Modern Europe. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1992.

Panizza, Letizia and Sharon Wood. eds. History of Women’s Writing in Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Romano, Dennis. “Gender and Urban Geography of Renaissance Venice,” Journal of Social History, 23 (1989) 339-55.

Week 2

Education of Women, Early Humanist Women, Women as Literary Patrons

Assignment

Reader:

Letters to Isotta Nogarola (written to her by well-known Humanists)

Laura Cereta. Letters to Bibulus Sempronius & Lucilia Vernacula

Christine de Pisan. The Book of the City of Ladies. Selected passages

Louise Labé. The Debate of Folly and Love. “Dedicatory Epistle”

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. “Admonishment” and “Reply”

Ana de San Bartolomé. Selected letters

Castiglione. The Book of the Courtie.r Selected passages

Read at least one of the following from each topic.

Education of Women:

Jardine, Lisa. “Women Humanists: Education for What?” In Feminism and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Lorna Hutson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 48-81
Kelso, Ruth et al. Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956. Chapter 4 “Education” pp. 58-77
King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 164-188
King, Margaret and Albert Rabil, Jr. eds., Her Immaculate Hand: Selected Works by and about the Women Humanists of Quattrocentro Italy. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. State University of NY at Binghamton, 1983, pp. 11-16
Wiesner, Merry. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, “Literacy and Learning,” pp. 117-145

Early Women Humanists:

King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance. Chicago: In Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Pas. Ed. Patricia Labalme, New York: New York University Press, 1980, pp 66-90.
King, Margaret and Albert Rabil, Jr. eds., Her Immaculate Hand: Selected Works by and about the Women Humanists of Quattrocentro Italy. Medieval and Renaissance texts and Studies. State University of NY at Binghamton, 1983, pp. 16-30.
Lamb, Mary Ellen, “The Cooke Sisters: Attitudes toward Learned Women in the Renaissance.” In Silent but for the Word. Ed., Margaret Hannay. Ashland, OH: Kent State University Press, 1985, pp. 107-125

Week 3

Querelle des Femmes

Assignment

Isabella Andreini. “Letter on the Birth of Women” in Stortoni & Lillie pp. 221-231

Reader:

Castiglione. The Book of the Courtie.r Selected passages

Moderata Fonte. The Worth of Women, Introduction and “First Day”

Lucrezia Marinella. The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men

Helisenne de Crenne. Invective Letters. Selected letters

Jane Anger. Her Protection for Women

Read at least two of the following:

“The Debate about Women,” pp. 3-46

“The Social Contexts,” pp. 47-98;

“The Literary Contexts, “ pp. 99-134

The Shared Horizon: Melbourne Essays in Italian Language and Literature. Ed.Tom O’Neil. Blacknock, Co. Dublin, 1990.

Writing in Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 65-78.

Additional bibliography

Primary sources

Agrippa , Henricus Cornelius. Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex. Ed. & trans. Albert Rabil, Jr. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Cereta, Laura. Collected Letters of a renaissance Feminist. Ed & trans. Diana Robin. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Marie De Gournay. “The Equality of Men and Women” in Apology of the Woman Writing and Other Works. Ed. & trans. Richard Hillman and Colette Quisnel. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Helisenne de Crenne/Marguerite de Briet. A Renaissance Woman: Helisenne’s Personal and Invective Letters. Ed. & Trans. Marianna M. Mustacchi and Paul J. Archambault. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986.

Makin, Bathusa Reginald. An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen. Augustan Reprint Society, 1980.

Marinella, Lucrezia. The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men. Ed. & trans. Anne Dunhill. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

O’Malley, Susan Gushee. Ed. Defences of Women: Jane Anger, Rachel Speght, Ester Sowerman and Constantia Munda. The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimilie Library of Essential Works, Part 1: Printed Writings, 1500-1640. U. Scholar Press, 1996.

Poullain de La Barre, François. The Equality of the Two Sexes. Wayne State University Press, 1988.

Schurman, Anna Maria van. Whether a Christian Woman Should Be Educated. Ed. & trans. Joyce Irwin. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Vives, Juan Luis. The Education of a Christian Woman. Ed. & trans. Charles Fantazzi.

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Secondary Sources

Achinstein, Sharon. “Women on Top in the Pamphlet Literature of the English Revolution.” In Feminism and Renaissance Studies. Ed. Lorna Hutson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999,pp. 339-372.

Benson, Pamela Joseph. The Invention of the Renaissance Woman: The Challenge of Female Independence in the Literature and Thought of Italy and England. Penn State University, 1992.

Ferguson, Moira. Ed. First Feminists: British Women Writers 1578-1799. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966.

Jordan, Constance. Renaissance Feminism: Literary and Political Models. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Maclean, Ian, The Renaissance Notion of Women: A Study of the Fortunes of Schloasticism and Medical Science in European Intellectual Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Wood, Diane S. Hélisenne de Crenne: At the Crossroads of Renaissance Humanism and Feminism. Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000.

Week 4

Poetry

Petrarchan sonnet

Assignment

Petrarch. Canzoniere. Trans. J.C. Nichols. Selected poems [Reader]

Stortoni & Lillie. Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans. Introduction pp. ix-xxx

Veronica Gambara in Startoni & Lillie, pp. 23-39

Vittoria Colonna in Startoni & Lillie, pp. 49-67

Gaspara Stampa in Startoni & Lillie, pp. 134-159

Louise Labé Sonnets. Trans. Graham Dunstan Martin. Selected poems [Reader]

Mary Wroth Selections from “Pamphilia to Amphilanthus” [Reader]

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Selected Poems [Reader]

Blackboard

Preminger, Alex and T.V.F. Brogan, eds. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Ewing, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993. “Petrarchism”

Took, John. “Petrarch.” In The Cambridge History of Italian Literature. Eds. Peter Brand and Lino Pertile. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Read at least two of the following:

Jones, Ann Rosalind, “Assimilation with a Difference: Renaissance Women Poets and Literary Influence.” Yale French Studies, 62 (1981) 135-153.
Jones, Ann Rosalind, “City Women and Their Audiences: Louise Labé and Veronica Franco.” In Rewriting the Renaissance. Eds. Ferguson, Quilligan & Vickers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, pp. 299-316.
Jones, Ann Rosalind. The Currency of Eros: Women’s Love Lyric in Europe 1540-1620. Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1990. Chapter 1
Moore, Mary B. Desiring voices: Women Sonneteers and Petrarchism. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.
- Chapter 3 Stampa
- Chapter 4 Labé
- Chapter 5 Wroth
Rabitti, Giovana. “Lyric Poetry, 1500-1650” in Panizza & Wood A History of Women’s Writing in Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 37-51
Sharratt, Peter. Louise Labé Sonnets. Edinburg Bilingual Series 7. Austin: University of Texas, 1973. Introduction pp. 1-17
Stortoni & Lillie. Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans. New York: Italica Press, 1997. Introduction pp. ix-xxxii
Vitiello, Justin, “Gaspara Stampa: The Ambiguities of Martyrdom.” MLN, 90:1 (January 1975) 58-71.

Additional bibliography

Baker, Deborah Lesko. The Subject of Desire: Petrarchan Poetics and the Female Voice in Louise Labé. Purdue Studies in Romance Literature, Vol. 11. West Lafayette, IL: Purdue University Press, 1996.

Bassanese, Fiora. Gaspara Stamp. London: Twayne, 1982.

Braden, Gordon, “Gaspara Stampa and the Gender of Petrarchism,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 38:2 (1996).

Cameron, Keith. Louise Labé: Renaissance Poet and Feminist. New York: Berg Publishers, 1991.

Hanisch, Gertrude S. Love Elegies of the Renaissance: Marot, Louise Labé, and Ronsard. Stanford French and Italian Studies, 15. Saratoga, CA: Anma Libri, 1979.

Lawner, Lynne, Lives of the Courtesans Portraits of the Renaissance. New York:Rizzoli, 1987.

Masson, Giorgina, Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance. New York: St. Martin’s, 1976.

Philippy, Patricia, “Altera Dido: The Model of Ovid’s Heroides in the Poems of Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Franco.” Italica 69 (1992) 1-18.

Rosenthal, Margaret, “Veronica Franco’s Terze Rime: The Venetian Courtesan’s Defences.” Renaissance Quarterly 42:2 (1989), 227-57.

_______________, The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth- Century Venice. Chicago, 1992. Chapter 2 “Fashioning the Honest Courtesan: Franco’s Patrons.”

Russell, Rinaldina, Italian Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 199).

Smarr, Janet, “Gaspara Stampa’s Poetry for Performance.” Journal of Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 12 (1991) 61-84.

Week 5

Letters, Diaries, Autobiography

Assignment

Laura Cereta. Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist. ed. & trans. Diana Robin. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Selected letters [Reader]

Veronica Franco. Letter XXII in Stortoni & Lillie pp. 175-79 and Poems and Selected Letters, Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal, eds., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Selected letters [Reader]

Arcangela Tarabotti. Letters. Trans. Meredith Ray & Lynn Westwater. Selected letters [Reader]

Jeanne d’Albret. In Bryson, avid. Queen Jeanne and the Promised Land: Dynasty, Homeland, Religion and Violence in Sixteenth-century France. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1999. Selected letters [Reader]

Marie de Gournay. Apology for the Woman Writing. Ed. & trans. Richard Hillman & Colette Quesnel, Chicago:mUniversity of Chicago Press, 2002. Selections. [Reader]

Helisenne de Crenne. Personal & Invective Letters.Trans. & ed. Marianna M. Mustacchi & Paul J. Archambault. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1986. Selected letters [Reader]

Mme de Sévigné. Selected Letters. Trans. Leonard Tancock. New York: Penguin Books, 1982. Selected letters [Reader]

Ana de San Bartolomé. In Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works. Eds. ElectaArenal & Stacey Schlau. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. SelectedLetters. [Reader]

Anne Clifford. The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford. Ed. D.J.H. Clifford. Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire,UK: Sutton Publishing, 1990. “The Knole Diary.” Selected passages [Reader]

Margaret Cavendish. Sociable Letter. Ed. James Fitzmaurice. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996. Selected letters [Reader].

Read at least one of the following:

Altman, Janet Gurkin, “The Letter Book as a Literary Institution 1539-1789: Toward a Cultural History of Published Correspondances in France.” Yale French Studies, 71 (1986) 17-62.
Clark, Danielle. Ed. Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney and Aemilia Lanyer: Renaissance Women Poets. Upland: DIANE Publishing Company, 2000. Introduction pp. x-xl.
Clough, Cecil H. “The Cult of Antiquity.” In Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance: Essays in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller. Ed.Cecil H. Clough. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976, pp. 33-67.
Doglio, Maria Luisa. “Letter Writing 1350-1650.” In A History of Women’s Writing in Italy. Ed. Letizia Panizza et al. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 13-24.
Mendelson, Sara Heller. “Staurt Women’s Diaries and Ocassional memoirs.” In Women in English Society 1500-1800. Ed. Mary Prior. New York: Routledge, 1985, pp. 181-210.

Additional Bibliography

Cholakian, Patricia F. Women and the Politics of Self-Representation in Seventeenth-Century France. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 200, pp. 29-36.

Crawford, Patricia and Laura Gowing. Eds. Women's Worlds in Seventeenth-Century England. New York: Routledge, 2000.

DeJean, Joan, "The Salons, 'Preciosity,' and the Sphere of Women's Influence." and "Classics in the Making." In A New History of French Literature. Ed. Denis Hollier Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 297-303, 391-96.

_______________, Ancients Against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siècle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Farrell, Michèle Longino, Performing Motherhood: The Sévigné Correspondence. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1991.

Lougee, Carolyn C. Le Paradis des Femmes: Women, Salons, and Social Stratification in Seventeenth-Century France. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976, 42-55, 70-79.

Nash, Jerry C. “Renaissance Misogyny, Biblical Feminism and Helisenne de Crenne’s Epistres Familieres et Invectives.” Renaissance Quarterly 50: 4 (Summer, 1997) 379-410

Rosenthal, Margaret F., The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Showalter, English, Jr., “Authorial Self-Consciousness in the Familiar Letter: The Case of Madame de Graffigny.” Yale French 71 (1986) 113-130.

Week 6

Religious writings

Assignments

Vittoria Colonna. Rime spirituali. Stortoni & Lillie, pp. 69-73

Moderata Fonte, The Resurrection of Christ [Reader]

Lucrezia Marinella, The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena [Reader]

Arcangela Tarabotti. “Praise of the Virgin Mary who confounds all misogynists,” in Paternal Tyranny, Book III. [Reader]

Sister Bartolomea Riccoboni, Life and Death in a Venetian Conven., Ed. and trans., Daniel Bornstein. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2000. Selections [Reader]

The Trial of Suor Mansueta. Trans. Anne Jacobson Schutte. [Reader]

Cecilia Ferrazzi. Autobiography of an Aspiring Saint. Ed. Anne Jacobsen Schutte. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Selections [Reader]

Jane Frances de Chantal. Selected Letters. London: R. & T. Washbourne, 1918. [Reader]

Teresa of Avila. The Book of Her Life. Trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD & Otilio Rodriguez, OCD. Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976. Selected passages [Reader]

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. “Divine Love” in A Sor Juana Anthology. Trans. Alan S. Trueblood, Harvard University Press, 1988. [Reader]

Margery Kempe. A Short Treatyse of Contemplation in “The Voices of English Women Technical Writers, 1641-1700: Imprints in the Evolution of Modern English Prose Style,” Technical Communication Quarterly, 7: 2 (Spring 1998) 130. [Reader]

Mary More Roper. A Devout Treatise Upon the Pater Noster. in “The Voices of English Women Technical Writers, 1641-1700: Imprints in the Evolation of Modern English Prose Style,” Technical Communication Quarterly, 7: 2 (Spring 1998) 131. [Reader]

Aemilia Lanyer. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. In The Poems of Aemilia Lanyer. Ed. Suzanne Woods. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Selections [Reader]

Mary Sidney. Selected poems in Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney and Aemilia Lanyer Renaissance Women Poets. Ed. Danielle Clark. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. [Reader]

Isabella Whitney Selected poems in Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney and Aemilia Lanyer Renaissance Women Poets. Ed. Danielle Clark. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. [Reader]

Read at least one of the following:

Arenal, Electa & Stacey Schlau. “Reclaiming the Mother Tongue: History and Spiritual Politics.” In Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989, pp. 1-17.
Arenal, Electa & Stacey Schlau. “Two Sisters among the Sisters: The Flowering of Intellectual Convent Culture.” In Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989, pp. 131-51.
Bornstein, Daniel, “A Small World: The Venetian Convent of Corpus Domini.” Introduction to Riccoboni. Life and Death in a Venetian Convent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, pp. 1-24.
Bynam, Caroline Walker, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food for Medieval Women. Berkley: University of California Press, 1987. [Read for indications of possible approaches to the question of Catherine’s asceticism, much stressed by Marinella]
Goldberg, Jonathan. “Canonizing Aemilia Lanyer.” In Desiring Women Writing: English Renaissance Examples. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1997, pp. 16-41.
Lamy, Theresa. “History of Religious Life in France.” In Juliana Morell: Child Prodigy, Religious Reformer, Spiritual Writer. New York University, Dissertation, 1991, pp. 29-59.
Rowlands, Marie B. “Recusant Women 1560-1640.” In Women in English Society 1500-1800. Ed. Mary Prior. London: Methuen, 1985, pp. 149-79.
Smith, Paul Julian, “Writing Women in Golden Age Spain: Saint Teresa and Maria de Zayas,” MLN 102: 2 (March 1987) 220-240.
Zarri, Gabrielle. “Religious and Devotional Writings, 1400-1600” in A History of Women’s Writing in Ital., Ed. Letizia Panizza et al. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 79-91.

Additional Bibliography

Arenal, Electra and Stacy Schlau. Eds. Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Words. Trans. Amanda Powell. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989.

Bornstein, Daniel and Roberto Rusconi. Eds. Women and Religion in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Crawford, Patricia. Women and Religion in England 1500-1700. New York: Routledge, 1996.

Ellington, Donna Spivey, “Impassioned Mother or Passive Icon: The Virgin’s Role in Late-medieval and Early Modern Passion Sermons.” Renaissance Quarterly, 48:2

(1995) 227-61.

Hannay, Margaret Patterson. Ed. Silent But for the Word: Tudor Women as Patrons, Translators, and Writers of Religious Works. Kent. OH: Kent State University Press, 1985.

Matter, E. Ann and John Coakley. Eds. Creative Women in Medieval and Early Modern Italy: A Religious and Artistic Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.

Merrim, Stephanie. Ed. Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991.

Warner, Marina, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary. Alfred A. Knopf, 1983. 1976).

Weaver, Elisa. Ed., Arcangela Tarabotti: A Literary Nun in Baroque Venice. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, forthcoming.

Week 7

Theater

Assignments

Isabella Andreini, Mirtilla Exerpt [Reader]

Cecilia de Nacimiento A Little Fiesta for a Nun’s Profession of Vows in Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works. Ed. Arenal & Schlau. Trans. Amanda Powell. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. [Reader]

Elizabeth Carey The Tragedy of Mariam: The Fair Queen of Jewry. Ed. Barry Weller and Margaret Ferguson, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Read the introduction to The Tragedy of Mariam and at least one of the following:

Andrews, Richard. "Isabella Andreini and Others: Women on Stage in the Late Cinquecento." Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society. Ed. Letizia Panizza. Oxford: Legend of Oxford, 2000, pp. 316-333.
Arenal, Electa & Stacey Schlau. “Two Sisters among the Sisters.” In Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their own Work. Ed. Arenal & Schlau. Trans. Amanda Powell. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989, pp. 131-51

Additional Bibliography

Cerasano, Susan P. & Marion Wynne-Davies. Eds. Readings in Renaissance Women Drama. New York: Routledge, 1998.

__________. Renaissance Drama by Women. New York: Routledge, 1996.

Fischer, Sandra. “Elizabeth Cary and Tyranny, Domestic and Religious” in Silent But for the Word. Ed. Margaret Hannay. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1985, pp. 225-37.

The Tragedy of Mariam Home Page

http://virtual.park.uga.edu/edesmet/rachel/classmat.htm

Weaver, Elissa. Convent Theater in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Week 8

Novellas

Assignment

Marguerite de Navarre, Heptameron. Trans. P.A. Chilton. London: Penguin Classics, 1984. Selections [Reader]

Maria de Zayas, Disenchantments of Love. Trans. H. Patsy Boyer. State University of New York Press, 1997)

Read the section on the Decameron in the Boccaccio article and at least one of the following:

Baker, Mary J. “Appeals for Pity in the Heptameron.” Renasence, 53: (Spring 2001) 191-206.
Grieve, Patricia E. “Embroidering with Saintly Threads: Maria de Zayas Challenges Cervantes and the Church.” Renaissance Quarterly, 44:1 (Spring 1991) 86-106.
Lyons, John D. “The Heptameron and the Foundation of Critical Narrative.” Yale French Studies, 70 (1986) 150-163.
Julian, Paul, “Writing Women in Golden Age Spain: Saint Teresa and Maria de Zayas.” MLN 102:2 (March 1987) 220-240.
Regosin, Richard L. “Death’s Desire: Sensuality and Spirituality in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron.” MLN, 116: 4 (Sept. 2001) 770-794.
Stewart, Pamela D. “Boccaccio.” In Cambridge History of Italian Literature, pp. 70-88.
Vollendorf, Lisa. Reclaiming the Body: María de Zayas’s Early Modern Feminism. North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 2001 Number 270, Chapel Hill, 2001, Chapter 3, “Women’s Place in the Social Order: Public, Private and Convent Life”

Additional bibliography

Philadelphia: , Marina S. The Cultural Labyrinth of María de Zayas. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.

Greer, Margaret Rich. María de Zayas Tells Baroque Tales of Love and the Cruelty of Men. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.

Maclean, Ian. Woman Triumphant: Feminism in French Literature, 1610-1652. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977, Chap. 2 pp. 25-63.

Polachek, Dora E. Ed. Heroic Virtue and Comic Infidelity: Reassessing Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron. 1994.

Tetel, Marcel. Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron: Themes, Language and Structure. Ed. John D. Lyons. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.

Vollendorf, Lisa. Reclaiming the Body: María de Zayas’s Early Modern Feminism. North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 2001, Number 270, Chapel Hill, 2001.

Week 9

Novel

Assignment

Mme de Lafayette The Princess of Clèves. Ed. John D. Lyons. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.

Read at least one of the following:

Hirsch, Marianne. “A Mother's Discourse: Incorporation and Repetition in La Princesse de Cleves.” Yale French Studies, 62 (1981) 62-87.
Judovitz, Dalia. “The Aesthetics of Implausibility: La Princesse de Cleves. ”MLN, 99:5 (December, 1984) 1037-1056.
Koppisch, Michael S. “The Dynamics of Jealousy in the Work of Madame de Lafayette.” MLN 94: 4 (May 1979) 757-773.
Contemporary Reaction (Lyons text, pp. 121-142)
Twentieth Century Criticism (Lyons text, pp.145-64)
Twentieth Century Criticism (Lyons text, pp.164-85)
Twentieth Century Criticism (Lyons text, pp.186-205)
Twentieth Century Criticism (Lyons text, pp. 206-30)
Twentieth Century Criticism (Lyons text, pp. 230-68)
Twentieth Century Criticism (Lyons text, pp. 269-86)

Additional bibliography

Beasley, Faith Evelyn and Katherine Ann Jonson. Ed. Approaches to Teaching Lafayette’s the Princess of Clèves. Approaches to Teaching World Literature, 61 MLA, 1998.

Green, Anne. Privileged Anonymity: The Writings of Madame de Lafayette. Research Monograph in French Studies, No. 1. David Brown Co., 1996.

Redhead, Ruth Willard. Themes and Images in the Fictional Works of Madame de Lafayette American University Studies, Series I: Romance Languages and Literature, Vol. 154. 1991.

Week 10

Novel

Assignment

Margaret Cavendish. The Blazing World & Other Writings. Ed. Kate Lilly. London: Penguin, 1994.

Introduction pp. ix-xxxvi

The Blazing World pp. 117-230

Keller, Eve, “Producing Petty Gods: Margaret Cavendish’s Critique of Experimental Science,” ELH, 64: 2 (Summer, 1997) 447-471.

Additional bibliography:

Battigelli, Anna, Margaret Cavendish and the Exiles of the Mind. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1988.

Bowerbank, Sylvia. “The Spider’s Delight: Margaret Cavendish and the ‘Female Imagination.’” English Literary Renaissance. Eds. Kirby Farrell, Elizabeth H. Hageman and Arthur F. Kinney, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.

Ferguson, Moira. “A ‘Wise, Wittie and Learned Lady’: Margaret Lucas Cavendish.” In Women Writers of the seventeenth Century. Eds Katharina M. Wilson and Frank J. Warnke. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.

Gallagher, Catherine. “Embracing the Absolute: The Politics of the Female Subject in Seventeenth- century England.” Genders 1:1 (1988) 24-39.

Grundy, Isobel and S. J. Wiseman., Eds. Women/Writing/History 1640-1740. London: Batsford, 1992.

Hobby, Elaine. Virtue of Necessity: English Women’s Writing 1649-88. London: Virago, 1988.

Jones, Kathleen. A Glorious Fame: The Life of Margaret Cavendish. London: Bloomsbury, 1988.

Lilley, Kate. “Blazing Worlds: Seventeenth Century Women’s Utopian Writing.” In Women, Texts and Histories 1575-1760. Eds. Clare Brant and Diane Purkiss. London: Routledge, 1992.

Mendelson, Sara Helle. The Mental World of Stewart Women: Three Studies, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.

Todd, Janet. The Sign of Angellica: Women, Writing, and Fiction 1660-1800. London: Virago, 1989.

Tomlinson, Sophie. “My Brain the Stage.” In Women, Texts and Histories 1575-1760. Eds. Clare Brant and Diane Purkiss. London: Routledge, 1992.

Whitaker, Katie, Mad Madge: The Extraordinary Life of Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle, the First Woman to Live by Her Pen. Boulder, CO: Basic Books, 2002.

Williamson, Marilyn L. Raising Their Voices: British Women Writers, 1650-1750. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990.

Wiseman, Susan J. “Gender and Status in Dramatic Discourse: Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle.” In Women/Writing/History 1640-1740. Eds. Isobel Grundy and Susan J. Wiseman. London: Batsford, 1992.