Widow City : Gender, Emotion, and Community in the Italian Renaissance.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wainwright, Anna.

Series:

The Early Modern Exchange Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Widows in literature.

Widows' writings, Italian--History and criticism.

Widows' writings, Italian.

Italian literature--History and criticism.

Italian literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (219 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick : University of Delaware Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Widow City: Gender, Emotion, and Community in Renaissance Italy investigates the ever-evolving role of the widow in medieval and early modern Italian literature, from canonical authors such as Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, to the numerous widowed writers who rose to prominence in the sixteenth century-including Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Gambara, and Francesca Turina-and radically changed the conversation on public mourning. Engaging with broader intellectual discussions around gender, the history of emotions, the politics of mourning, and the construction of community, Widow City argues that widows served as key models demonstrating to readers not just how to mourn, but how to live well after devastating loss. At the same time, widows were figures of great anxiety: their status as unattached women, and the public performance of their grief, were viewed as very real threats to the stability of the social order. They are thus key to broader intellectual understandings of community and civic life in the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Dante, Petrarch, and the ethics of widowhood

Boccaccio's many merry widows

Sacred role models from Judith and Anna to Birgitta of Sweden

Dido, death, and exemplarity : public widowhood from Petrarch to Vittoria Colonna

Widowed verse : Christine de Pizan, Vittoria Colonna, and Francesca Turina

"Widowhood for its own sake" : widows in two dialogues of the counter reformation.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-64453-361-8

1-64453-362-6

OCLC:

1515460247