Motherhood and Patriarchal Masculinities in Sixteenth-Century Italian Comedy

Yael Manes (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

160 Seiten

2016
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-138-26158-7 (ISBN)

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Exploring individual and collective formation of gender identities, this book contributes to current scholarly discourses by examining plays in the genre of 'erudite comedy' (commedia erudita), which was extremely popular among sixteenth-century Italians from the elite classes. Author Yael Manes investigates five erudite comedies-Ludovico Ariosto's I suppositi (1509), NiccolÃ² Machiavelli's La Mandragola (1518) and Clizia (1525), Antonio Landi's Il commodo (1539), and Giovan Maria Cecchi's La stiava (1546)-to consider how erudite comedies functioned as ideological battlefields where the gender system of patriarchy was examined, negotiated, and critiqued. These plays reflect the patriarchal order of their elite social milieu, but they also offer a unique critical vantage point on the paradoxical formation of patriarchal masculinity. On the one hand, patriarchal ideology rejects the mother and forbids her as an object of desire; on the other hand, patriarchal male identity revolves around representations of motherhood. Ultimately, the comedies reflect the desire of the Italian Renaissance male elite for women who will provide children to their husbands but not actively assume the role of a mother. In sum, Manes reveals a wide cultural understanding that motherhood-as an activity that women undertake, not simply a relational position they occupy-challenges patriarchy because it bestows women with agency, power, and authority. Manes here recovers the complexity of Renaissance Italian discourse on gender and identity formation by approaching erudite comedies not only as mirrors of their audiences but also as vehicles for contemporary audiences' ideological, psychological, and emotional expressions.

Yael Manes received her doctorate from the Department of History at Cornell University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of History at Agnes Scott College.

Introduction: Feminine Fatherhood?, Yael Manes; Chapter 1 What Is a Mother's Worth? The Negotiation of Motherhood and Virtù in Machiavelli's La mandragola (1518), Yael Manes; Chapter 2 Replacing the Father: Negotiating Motherhood and the Battle for Authority in Machiavelli's Clizia (1525), Yael Manes; Chapter 3 Prescribing the Ideal Mother in the Discourse of Humanism and Antonio Landi's Il commodo (1539), Yael Manes; Chapter 4 The Father–Son Conflict and the Dysfunction of Fatherhood in Giovan Maria Cecchi's La stiava (1546) and Ludovico Ariosto's I suppositi (1509), Yael Manes; Chapter 102 Conclusion: Motherhood as Masculine Identity's Object of Desire, Yael Manes;

Erscheinungsdatum	07.01.2017
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	453 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-138-26158-0 / 1138261580
ISBN-13	978-1-138-26158-7 / 9781138261587
Zustand	Neuware