Full Description
A seventeenth-century play showing the reality of life for women.
Valeria Miani's Amorous Hope is a play of remarkable richness, subtlety, and verve. It presents a scathing exposure of society's double-standards and it champions women's dramatic agency by centering on the bleak reality they often faced, a reality that attempted to harm and silence its victims. The play's salient episodes reflect realities modern women still face today.
Miani's literary achievements attest to her emergence as a cultural protagonist alongside Europe's most talented women writers, such as Isabella Andreini, and she challenged the premodern notion that a woman's eloquence is an indication of her sexual promiscuity.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Introduction
The Other Voice
Life, Works, and Afterlife of Valeria Miani
The Ricovrati of Padua
The Ricovrati on the Education of Women
Miani among the "Illustrious and Famous Poets of Italy": Contributions to Polinnia (1609) and
the Gareggiamento poetico (1611)
Miani's Madrigal in Paolo Bozi's Vita, attioni, miracoli (1614)
Miani's Amorosa speranza and Female-Authored Pastoral Drama
Amorosa speranza: Structure and Themes
Note on the Italian Text
Note on the Transcription
Note on the Translation
Amorosa speranza / Amorous Hope
Notes to the Italian Text
Notes to the English Translation
Appendix
Selections from Polinnia
Selections from Gareggiamento poetico, Le Lodi (Part Four)
Bibliography
Index
