Women Rhetoric and Drama in Early Modern Italy

<p>Sixteenth-century Italy witnessed the rebirth of comedy tragedy and tragicomedy in the pastoral mode. Traditionally we think of comedy and tragedy as remakes of ancient models and tragicomedy alone as the invention of the moderns. <em>Women Rhetoric and Drama in Early Modern Italy</em> suggests that all three genres were in fact remarkably new if dramatists’ intriguingly sympathetic portrayals of and sustained investment in women as vibrant and dynamic characters of the early modern stage are taken into account. This study examines the role of rhetoric and gender in early modern Italian drama in itself and in order to explore its complex interrelationship with the rise of women writers and the role women played in Italian culture and society while at the same time demonstrating just how closely intertwined history culture and dramatic writing are. Author Alexandra Coller focuses on the scripted/erudite plays of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries which she argues are indispensable for a balanced view of the history of drama and its place within contemporary literary and women’s studies. As this book reveals the ascendancy of comedy tragedy and tragicomedy in the vernacular seems to have been not only inextricably linked to but also dependent on the rise of women as prominent stage characters and eventually as authors in their own right.</p>