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9780801885167 Add to Cart Academic Inspection Copy

Machiavelli in Love:

Sex, Self, and Society in the Italian Renaissance
  • ISBN-13: 9780801885167
  • Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
    Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
  • By Guido Ruggiero
  • Price: AUD $109.00
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 16/04/2007
  • Format: Hardback 300 pages Weight: 0g
  • Categories: Philosophy [HP]
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''A book that no one will be able to ignore in historical, gender, and Italian literary studies. Here Ruggiero breaks new ground, especially with his keen eye for connecting fiction with social experience.''—Edward Muir, Northwestern University, author of Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice and Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta and Factions in Friuli during the Renaissance Machiavelli in Love introduces a complex concept of sex and sexual identity and their roles in the culture and politics of the Italian Renaissance. Guido Ruggiero's study counters the consensus among historians and literary critics that there was little sense of individual identity and almost no sense of sexual identity before the modern period. Drawing from the works of major literary figures such as Boccaccio, Aretino, and Castiglione, and rereading them against archival evidence, Ruggiero examines the concept of identity via consensus realities of family, neighbors, friends, and social peers, as well as broader communities and solidarities. The author contends that Renaissance Italians understood sexual identity as a part of the human life cycle, something that changed throughout stages of youthful experimentation, marriage, adult companionship, and old age. Machiavelli's letters and literary production reveal a fascinating construction of self that is highly reliant on sexual reputation. Ruggiero's challenging reinterpretation of this canonical figure, as well as his unique treatment of other major works of the period, offer new approaches for reading Renaissance literature and new understandings of the way life was lived and perceived during this time.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Of Birds, Figs, and Sexual Identity in the Renaissance, or The Marescalco's Boy Bride2. Playing with the Devil: The Pleasures and Dangers of Sex and Play3. The Abbot's Concubine: Renaissance Lies, Literature, and Power4. Brunelleschi's First Masterpiece, or Mean Streets, Familiar Streets, Masculine Spaces, and Identity in Renaissance Florence5. Machiavelli in Love: The Self-Presentation of an Aging Lover6. Death and Resurrection and the Regime of Virt+¦, or Of Princes, Lovers, and Prickly PearsAfterword: How Machiavelli Put the Devil Back in HellNotesBibliographyIndex

""Suggestive new readings of an unusual range of texts.""

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