Women, Rhetoric, and Drama in Early Modern Italy

Alexandra Coller is Associate Professor and Director of the Italian Program at Lehman College, City University of New York, USA.

• CONTENTSAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. Women as Protagonists in Male-Authored Drama: Comedy and TragedyChapter 1: Fathers, Daughters, Crossdressing, and Names: Women, Rhetoric, and Education in Commedia EruditaCoda to Chapter 1: Margherita Costa’s Li buffoni (1641): The First (Extant) Female-Authored Scripted ComedyChapter 2: Fashioning a Genealogy: The Rhetoric of Friendship and Female Virtue in Italian Renaissance TragedyCoda to Chapter 2: Valeria Miani’s Celinda (1611) Among Fin de Siècle Italian TragediesPart II. Women as Authors/ Women as Protagonists: Pastoral TragicomedyChapter 3: Women Writers and the Canon: Satyr Scenes in Female-Authored Pastoral DramaChapter 4: Isabetta Coreglia’s Dori (1634): Writing Pastoral Drama Against the Backdrop of the Male Canon and an Incipient Female-Authored TraditionChapter 5: Isabetta Coreglia’s Erindo il fido (1650) and Isabella Andreini’s Mirtilla (1588): Using A Female-Authored Classic as ParadigmAppendix: excerpts from Isabetta Coreglia’s Raccolta manuscriptBibliographyIndex

"The intriguing glimpses into unknown plays, both male- and female-authored, plus the richly documented scholarship make this work very useful and likely to lead to many future explorations." - Janet Levarie Smarr, University Of California, San Diego