Call for papers

RSA Chicago 2017 (30 March-1 April 2017)

PANEL: «Di tentar fama io mai non sarò stanca»: Women’s writings in Renaissance time

Di tentar fama io mai non sarò stanca

perché ’l mio nome invido oblìo non copra;
benché m’avveggia che sudando a l’opra

divien pallido il volto, e ’l crin s’imbianca.

(Isabella Andreini, canz. mor. A Gabriello Chiabrera,

Vago di posseder, vv. 37-40)

Organizers: Stefano Santosuosso

This panel, or series of panels, aims at gathering papers focusing on texts written by the notable number of women in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The purpose is to contribute to the re-evaluation of female writers within the broader context of the ‘canonical’ writings, from which women had been deliberately marginalised, when not ignored, by male counterparts (both authors and critics) for long time. This misconduct has caused a real shortage, to date, of critical and annotated editions of texts as well as a lack of specific investigations from different perspectives (such as historical, critical and linguistic). As the necessity of further debates on this issue emerges from the current state of scholarship on the topic, in order to bring into focus the specific share of female figures and their written works, we welcome proposals on, but not limited to, the following subjects:

- Women’s authorship, definition and case studies;

- Printed or manuscript ‘female’ works: critical and/or philological analysis (forms, themes, sources, linguistic features, author’s intention and addressed audience, censorial impact and the authorial rewriting);

- Oral diffusion of ‘female works’;

- The influence of the Holy Scripture and religious institutions on ‘female’ poetry;

- Networks and relationships between authors and/or works;

- Link of ‘female’ poetry with other Arts (Painting, Music, Theatre);

- Transnational connections between Italian writers/works and European ones.

Please send a short abstract (max 150 words), a title (max 15 words), keywords (max 4) and Cv (max 300 words) to Stefano Santosuosso ([log in to unmask]) by 20th May 2016.