Quaderni d'italianistica : revue officielle de la Société canadienne pour les études italiennes = official journal of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, 2001


Recensioni

status quo. Pertanto, la seconda parte del libro "Testimonianze" è come una casa

con le finestre aperte solo da un lato e gli interventi, benché interessanti nella loro

individualità, sembrano acquarelli dello stesso panorama.

Malgrado questa lacuna, il libro Giuliano-Dalmati in Australia aggiunge un vali-

do ed importante capitolo alla storia delle popolazioni delle regioni nord orientali

dell'Italia che, maggiormente colpite dalla guerra e disperse dalla pace, aspirano

oggi a riunirsi nella storiografia.

Angelo Principe
University of Toronto

Shemek, Deanna. Ladies Errant: Wayward Women and Social Order
in Early Modern Italy. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.
258.

The title's juxtapositions, "wayward" versus "order," "women" versus "soci-

ety," reinforced by the multi-levelled meaning of "errant," encapsulate the thesis

of this study concerned with the literature that conveys women's potential for

transgressing bounds set by society, and deviating from paths sanctioned by a cul-

ture centred on male privileges, thus posing, supposedly, a danger to individual

men and to the order of the community as a whole. The title intends to evoke the
fear in early modern culture, that representations of feminine initiatives — in
intellectual achievement, in images of military prowess, in amorous indulgence —
might lead the ordered society astray. The study that considers the Orlandofurioso,

the Discorso by Laura Terracina, and two of Bandello's novelle, effectively presents

a counterpoint to social reservations and censure by celebrating the deliberate

efforts of women in fiction, who advance beyond the social and cultural barriers
set for them by men. In this way, the author invites the reader to understand erran-

cy not in relation to doing "wrong" or "straying" from a fixed path, but rather as

the deliberate act of resistance, symbolizing a separate sexual affirmation. Both

fictional and historical references capture the sixteenth-centurv attempts at arrest-

ing the mobile and elusive female, personifying the difference that men located in
women as a way of defining their own selves. Feminine physical and intellectual
"mobility" was synonymous with waywardness, instability. (In today's colloquial

jargon as well, the notion that woman ought to be "pregnant," "barefoot," "in the
kitchen," implies essentially to circumscribe her mobility in the interest of mas-

culine control.)

Although three of the five large chapters are centred upon the then very pop-

ular Orlando furioso, discussions about the feminine range over a wide literary and

historical landscape where womanhood acquired its meanings, be it in the writings
of progressive humanists, in fictional narrative, in poetry, treatises, or in literary

theory, in a period of early modern Italy when writings on nearly every aspect of

women's lives flourished to an unprecedented degree. Shemek regards the Furioso's

importance as pivotal in European literary development up to Spenser,

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Monteverdi, Cervantes, even to Italo Calvino's best loved novels, inherent in the

vast cultural panorama disclosed in this epic are fundamental dichotomies which

Ariosto deliberately blurred in order to expose the difficulty of interpretation in a

world of "contingency and moral dilemma" (10): dichotomy of Christian and

Muslim, friend and foe, man and woman, good and evil. Shemek regards the con-

temporary, raging querelle des femmes as pertaining to the fashion of the b//rioso's

Story where the narrating "voice" cannot make up his mind about women, and is

in fact an "errant" type himself, fickle as the knights. Taken as a whole, the chap-

ters are concerned not only with examining the great literary works concerned

with gender issues in the early modern period, but also with identifying the inabil-

ity to arrest, or set free, a movement potentially able to effect an unprecedented

social transformation. The female figures examined loom large on the literary

stage of this period, but were nevertheless denied a rooted context, a locus with-

in the accepted social and moral fabric — headstrong, but also compromising and
ambivalent women destined to remain in fiction and in literary iconicity as wax-
ward women out of place.

The first chapter engages in an extensive examination of the Palio of San

Giorgio as depicted in the Salon of the Months commissioned by Duke Borso

d'Esté of Ferrara. Here, the role of women and "pute insino a 14 anni" (202) is
analysed in relation to moral and social significance. Although both "good"

women and prostitutes participated, the former were clearly privileged by keeping
a visible distance to affirm their Christian values, their domestic place and obedi-

ent stance in contrast with women regarded as transgressors. This visible and
accepted festival pattern remained consonant with ongoing social practices and

philosophies, which categorized women in terms of their relations to the female
ideal of virginity. Like the querelle des femmes, it placed the question of chastity at

the centre of the concerns with women's worth and proper social roles.

Chapters 2 and 3 continue the discussion of the contrasting representations

and roles of women in the Furioso, in the creations of the exotic Indian princess
Angelica, inexplicably blonde and supremely beautiful on one hand, and on the

other, the warrior-heroine, wife and queen, Bradamante. In "That Elusive Object

of Desire," Deanna Shemek offers a detailed and fresh exploration of the rela-

tions between the notions of womanhood and desire in the Furioso, relating them

to Ariosto's presentations of selfhood and difference, pointing out that Ariosto

deliberately imports into the text several of the most important discourses of the

sixteenth century: the humanist liberalization of female education, the activity of

a number of women poets, the prominence of the women of powerful families
in Italy's courtly society, and in contrast, the relegation of women to a subsidiary
sphere, the value of accomplished women as a reflection and enhancement of the
superior skills of men — issues significant enough "to constitute Italy's querelle des
femmes" (46). The presence of Angelica as an elusive object of male gaze and

desire is studied in terms of Lacan's structural scheme where, as fot Ariosto, the

elements of escape and repetition are integral components. As a consequence,

woman always remains beyond grasp and comprehension, so that attempts at
appropriation are doomed to continuous repetition. Having placed himself in

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absolute specular opposition to Angelica as ideal, as Woman, Orlando can possess

Angelica only in his imagination, and when confronted with concrete evidence

confirming his loss of her, his withdrawal from desire, his rejection of language

and self lead to loss of his human self and eventual madness. Intrigues and blur-

ring of gender and desire form the basis of discussion for the chapter centred

upon Bradamante, "Gender, Duality, and Sacrifices of History." Shemek discuss-

es the fact that issues of gender are kept very visibly in the foreground in repeat-

ed instances of the Furioso, not only in light-hearted instances as when Fiordispina

mistakes the gender of Bradamante and her twin look-alike brother Ricciardetto

(113), but also in dramatic and crucial moments as when on Rodomonte's bridge,

Bradamante makes an uncommon declaration of her sex before a joust, following

her discovery of Isabella's tragic death in fidelity to the spirit of her dead husband.

Toward the conclusion of the epic, the blurring and yet affirmation of gender

reappears in the person of the pregnant warrior-wife-mother Bradamante who,

with Marfisa, ventures out in search of the body of her slain husband Ruggiero,

and in bloody revenge destroys "by fire and sword" the fief of the Maganzesi

(123). Bradamante may give the semblance of domestication through marriage

and motherhood, but till the end Ariosto impresses upon the reader her role as

warrior and her nature as hero.

Whatever today's interpretations of femininity and feminism may be, it is

recorded that in Ariosto 's time women readers were affected by the poem's rep-
resentations of the female sex and by the manner in which Ariosto repeatedly dis-

plays — openly and subliminali}7 — the irrationality in contemporary notions of
femininity. The purpose of Chapter 4, then, is to examine the response to the

poem by the poet Laura Terracina, one of the Furioso"?, most avid readers of the

sixteenth century. A prolific writer herself, Terracina set forth her views in the
Discorso sopra tutti i primi canti ({'"Orlando furioso, " which appeared in more than

eleven editions between 1549 and 1608, over the six decades following Ariosto's

death. So successful was the Furioso, that the Discorso, architecturally mimicking the

epic, proved to be the most successful "spin-off" of its time. Shemek outlines in

detail how Terracina constructed her poem replacing Ariosto's internal stanza
content with her own message, framed by Ariosto's first and last verses for each

stanza, so that what results is in fact a "kind of coauthored Furioso in miniature,

whose female-authored stanzas serve as echo chambers for the resonance of the

canonical male poet's lines" (131). One can only imagine how a living Ariosto
would have reacted to such appropriation, especially following his recommenda-

tion (Canto XXXVII.23), that women should render their own independent
"virtues immortal" ("poi che voi fate / per voi stesse immortai vostra virtute").

Terracina's purpose, however, was timely and pressing, and using a remake of the

most popular literary work as a vehicle, assured not only the profitable marketing

and dissemination of her own message, but also the continued popularity of the

Furioso's illustrations, much to the printers' profit and delight. Terracina's pressing

wish was to discuss men's injustices to women, as well as the barriers she herself

experienced as woman and writer: "Vorrei parlar, ma l'ira il dir m'intoppa / Poi
che sola difendo il nostro sesso./ Già il desiderio mio brama, e galoppa / Di ven-

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dicarsi, e pur non m'è concesso,/ Contra costor c'han si la mente /oppa Appo

noi Donne; in darne oltraggi spesso:/ Ma spero che dal ciel verrà saetta,/ Et credo
che di noi tara vendetta (( anto V). 1 1ère, and more dramatically elsewhere, writing

is cast as a means of combat often used In nun against women, who till now have
been ill-equipped to retaliate. As a lyrical document composed during the ( .ounter

Reformation, the Discorsi also displays themes consonant to the times: a nostalgia

tor a more innocent past; mistrust of worldly ambitions; disapproval of abuse of

sexual freedom by women; concern for victims of wars. Terracina's work and its

popular reception at the time illustrate the ability of accomplished women to
articulate through creative methods independent and often very contrasting \iews

in relation to those of prominent writers. At the same time, Terracina's appropri-

ation and remaking ot the Ivtrioso also demonstrates how even highly literate
women were dependent (openly or not) upon acclaimed models, in light of which
their own were to remain of secondary importance.

Illustrating the motif of "errancy" in a person of early modern Italy, the last

chapter, "Adding Insult to Injury: Bandello's Tales of Isabella de Luna," examines

the difficult but wealthy life-style of the Spanish-born Isabella (d. 1565), who

"practised virtually the only profession that allowed women of her day the free-
dom to earn and dispose of their own income as she does ... a courtesan" (158).
A well known figure in military circles, Isabella travelled through Europe and
north Africa, following the vicissitudes of a man she loved in the army of
Emperor Charles V, eventually settling in Rome to build a career as one of the
most successful courtesans of the Renaissance. This useful chapter reviews the

main literature of the sixteenth century concerned with courtesans, be they

"oneste" or otherwise, in order to contextualise Bandello's Sorelle that include sev-

eral tales of courtesans with the figure of Isabella featured in two tales. Bandello's

portrayal of Isabella attests to his concern for both accuracy and literary organi-

zation of historical material: she is in fact depicted as a world-wise prostitute,

often echoing Bradamante-like bravery and intelligence. In the first of Bandello's

example (Part II, Novella 51), Isabella comically outsmarts a man who set her up

to being defamed in front of his friends. To her profit and amusement, she man-

ages to show him up as a truly hypocritical and untrustworthy man. The second

example (Part IV, Xore//a 16), addresses the more thorny issues of prostitution

that place Isabella at the centre. She submits to a public whipping for having

defied the law and clashed with authority- — this cruel public punishment is sig-
nificantly foreshadowed in the preface to the novella where another defiant military

prostitute is burned at the stake. Shemek effectively points to Foucault's observa-

tion — and Nietzsche's before him — that public punishments rely on the cre-
ation of memorable images for the observing audience (178), and Bandello makes

eminent use of punishment as spectacle in order to drive home to women the
dangers of waywardness and defiance. In real life, however, Isabella was fully

responsible with respect to settling properly her public score before death, ensur-

ing that all debts were paid, all her beneficiaries were recompensed, that her loved

ones, monasteries, and convents were remunerated handsomely, that servants and

destitutes were well cared for, and several dowries distributed. In keeping with the

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concerns of the Council of Trent, as a woman of considerable means, Isabella de

Luna reformed the latter years of her life in order to enjoy a life of ease and inde-

pendence, far from the errancy that had characterized her youth.

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw an unprecedented outpouring of

treatises and manuals on social behaviour and good governance. Fiction and real-

ity, what was and what ought to be, often became blurred as did the crucial con-

cerns related to sex and gender roles. This study by Shemek addresses both liter-

ary fiction and contemporary social realism seeking to distinguish one from the

other, but also pointing out how fairly and unfairly they affected each other. Her

answer to the question "Did women have a Renaissance," remains not less nega-
tive than when it was first asked twenty years ago (15). Her careful, detailed inves-

tigations confirm, in fact, that Renaissance women were "creatures of compro-
mise and ambivalence as much as of headstrong rebellion," who "trace the early

modern notion of women 'out of place,' of wayward ladies dangerously
errant"(16). This work is valuable to students of the. Quattrocento and Cinquecento

for the several revisions it brings to previous studies on errancy and feminine

behaviour, and how these were perceived to threaten male identity and social

order in the artistic, social, and intellectual manifestations of the Italian

Renaissance. For these same reasons, this study is also valuable to students of con-

temporary Italian women writers, who often portray women characters at odds
with their familial and social milieus, who often argue that an individual identity and
voice mav be best achieved through resistance to or separation from the unques-

tioned social order.

Vera F. Golini

St. Jerome's/ University of Waterloo

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