ITL 242 CC: MEDIEVAL HERSTORIES

How did women engage with literature in the Middle Ages and the early modern times?  How did gender play a role in her positioning as intellectuals and writers? Did women even have a “Renaissance”? These are some of the questions this course will address, centering on women’s herstories in the pre-modern era. With a focus on Italy in comparative optics, students will explore women’s literary contributions in the Middle Ages and early modern times, and analyze how women were portrayed in contemporary male writings. Students will read across different genres (poetry, narrative, philosophy, politics, letters, visions), from a host of different authors: noble poets like the trobairitz Comtessa de Dia and Vittoria Colonna; mystical writers like Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, and Marguerite d’Oingt; a Spanish nun whose family converted from Judaism like Teresa de Cartagena; an Italian expatriate in France like Christine de Pizan; refined intellectuals like Gaspara Stampa and Veronica Gambara; “honored courtesans” like Veronica Franco; and writers who became famous for their poetry addressed to beloved women, like Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Francesco Petrarca.  The course contextualizes these readings in their historical moment, while also analyzing their impact on (proto-)feminist issues, like literacy, social power and dynamics, embodiment, and religiosity. Finally, the course takes into account a global perspective on medieval and early modern texts, by including contemporary authors from the Middle East and East Asia. While the focus will remain on the production in Italian, all materials will be in English translation.