Chiara Matriani and Doña Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán : marginalized poetic voices of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Date
1997
Authors
Lorenzi, Daniela
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This thesis examines a portion of the work of sixteenth and seventeenth century poets Chiara Matraini and Clara Ramirez de Guzman in order to determine possible reasons for their non-inclusion in the lyric canon of the time. A general background is provided for the development of the lyric genre in Italy and Spain as well as a summary of socio-historical influences which affected canonical acceptance of women poets. The Italian and Spanish lyric canons of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are examined, with particular emphasis on the seminal texts of Pietro Bembo in Italy and Fernando de Herrera in Spain and with special attention paid to the Petrarchan fashion which dominated lyric poetry at the time. Subsequently, the study then proceeds to a detailed textual analysis of poems from the corpus of both women. The conclusion reached is that Matraini and de Guzman, while writing within what appears to be a traditional Petrarchan framework, to a degree subvert the canon established by Bembo and Herrera.