Student Proposal

The Treatment of Women in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso: The Work as Receptor and Emitter of Feminist Literary Influences in the Renaissance

The role of the female in the literary tradition of knight-errantry underwent an enormous change brought on by the egalitarian work of Lodovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso. This work placed certain women at the same level as men, that is as actual knights. Yet the work still reflected the contemporary thinking by also depicting other women as victims of the desires of men. Ariosto realized the growing relevance of women as readers at the time his work was published in 1516, and thus made influential changes in the language and behavior of his female characters to encourage non-typical female roles. During the course of the summer I plan to investigate the sources such as Alberti, Castiglione, and others that prompted Ariosto to treat women in his work in this manner and I will also study the impact that his work had on later Renaissance pieces. I will also read works of some contemporary women writers, mainly poetry and letters, to fully investigate the impact of Ariosto's liberating portrayal of women. Besides just focusing on the literary aspect, my advisor and I will study the linguistic changes in female language between the texts as well.

By working with my advisor I hope to help her continue in her research on the theme of women in Orlando Furioso. I will help her investigate the repercussions this work had as a prescription for women to follow and as an example for the portrayal of women in subsequent works of Renaissance authors. She recently completed her dissertation on the place of women in Ariosto's work and plans on continuing her research to either publish a revised version of her dissertation or future articles on the theme. I feel that my participation in her research will also be beneficial for myself, as I plan to compare the roles of women in Arisosto's Orlando Furioso with those of Cervantes's Don Quijote de la Mancha in my undergraduate thesis. Therefore, any research I do this summer for my advisor will also be very helpful to me in furthering my progress with my undergraduate thesis.

Methods:
I plan to use the University of Delaware Library's resources to look up the articles and books it contains on my topic by using databases like the PMLA Bibliography. I also plan to take advantage of the interlibrary loan to locate any works that will be useful to my research outside of the library. I have already read an abridged version of Orlando Furioso but plan to read the entire work in Italian at the start of the summer.

As the summer progresses, I shall write summaries of the works I investigate each week for my advisor and I shall use these summaries as the basis for our discussion in the weekly sessions. All articles that I will find will be photocopied for my advisor's files along with the summaries and outlines of the other works.

Projected Time Table:

Weeks 1-4: During these weeks I will read the didactic literature used to instruct women of the 1400 and 1500s and I will read modern commentary and criticisms of these works.
Week 1: Barbaro, Battista
Week 2: Castiglione
Week 3: Borstein, Cannon
Week 4: Grender, Blade

Weeks 5-6: During these two weeks I will read other works by Ariosto that are pertinent to my study of women of the period, namely I Cinque Canti, The Comedies of Ariosto, and Le Opere Minore.

Weeks 7-8: During these two weeks I will read the complete poem of Orlando Furioso in Italian.

Weeks 9-10: During these two weeks I will read the works of the male and female humanis writies of the 1400s and 1500s that were influenced by Ariosto.

Bibliography

Alberti, Leon Battista. The Alberti's of Florence: Leon Battista Alberti's della Famiglia. Translated by Guido Guarino. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1971.

_________. The Family in Renaissance Florence. Translated by Renee Watkins. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1969.

Ariosto, Lodovico. Cinque Canti. Translated by Sheers and Quint. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

_________. Comedies of Ariosto. Translated by Beame and Sbrocchi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.

_________. Opere Minore. A cura di Cesare Segre. Milano: R. Ricciardi, 1954.

_________. Orlando Furioso. Secondo Edizione del 1532. Ed. by Santorre De Benedetti and Cesare Segre. Bologna: Commissione per I Testi di Lingua, 1960.

_________. Orlando Furioso. Trans. by Sir John Harrington (1591). London: Oxford University Press, 1972.

_________. The Seven Planets Governing Italy. London: William Stansby, 1611.

Arslan, Chemello, Pizza.ed. Le Stanze Ritrovate: Mirano: Eidos, 1991.

Barbaro, Francesco. De Re Uxoria. London: John Leigh, 1677.

Blade, Melinda. Education of Italian Renaissance Women. Mesquite: Ide House, 1983.

Borgia, Lucrezia. The Prettiest Love Letters in the World: Letters between Lucrezia Borgia And Pietro Bembo. London: Collins Harvill, 1987.

Borstein, Diane, ed. Distaves and Dames: Renaissance Treatises for and about Women. Delmar: Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, 1978.

Borstein, Diane, ed. The Feminist Controversy of the Renaissance. Delmar: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1980.

Cannon, Mary. Education of Women during the Renaissance. Washington DC: National Capitol Press, 1916.

Castiglione, Baldassarre. Il Cortegiano, con una scelta delle opere minori. A cura de Bruno Maier. Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1955.

_________. Libor del Cortegiano. Vinegia: Appresso Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1546.

Costa-Zalessov, Natalia. Scrittrici Italiane dal XIII al XX secolo. Ravenna: Longo Editore, 1982.

Grender, Paul. Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

Hanning and Rosand, eds. Castiglione: The Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.

Jones, Ann. The Currency of Eros: women's love lyric in Europe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.

King, Margaret. Her Immaculate Hand: Selected works by and about the women humanists Of Quattrocento Italy. Birmingham: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1983.

_________. Women of the Renaissance. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1991.

Masson, Georgina. Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975.

Faculty Letter of Support