Amsterdam University Press Petrarch and the Making of Gender in Renaissance Italy - Book

Explore a new history of early modern gender through the lens of Renaissance Italian lyric poetry. This scholarly work examines how the Italian Renaissance served as a watershed moment in the evolution of Western gender roles. During this period, cultural developments disrupted long-standing Aristotelian binary thinking, creating space for new social perspectives. By studying the impact of Petrarchism, this book reveals how men and women used the subjective expression and experimentation found in accessible poetic genres to imagine different gendered possibilities. Readers will find deep insights into how these changes influenced fundamental aspects of life, including marriage, war, and religion. This text provides a unique look at how literary movements shaped the social fabric of the late medieval and early modern world.