"This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wroth

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dc.contributor.advisorSchalkwyk, Daviden_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDistiller, Natashaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-06T14:42:57Z
dc.date.available2016-09-06T14:42:57Z
dc.date.issued1997en_ZA
dc.descriptionBibliography: pages 197-201.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractMary Wroth, the first Englishwoman to write a Petrarchan sonnet sequence, creates a counterdiscourse which comments on and contributes to English love poetry. Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is addressed from a female lover to a male beloved, and this thesis discusses the implications of this unusual Petrarchan gender configuration .It explores the ways in which Wroth's Pamphilia encounters, is affected by, and alters, the poetics of English Petrarchanism, showing how English Petrarchanism had developed into a discourse that assumed a male poet and a female addressee. By paying attention to Wroth's socio-historical context, as well as her genre, I discuss how and why Pamphilia encounters elements of English Petrarchanism that do not easily allow for a female speaker. Illustrating that gendered subjectivities form the basis of English Petrarchan poetics, I show how this is relevant in terms of the gender climate of the Renaissance. By paying attention to common-sense assumptions about 'appropriate' female behaviour, and the dynamics of the public performance that (especially Petrarchan) writing entailed, I explore the implications for Pamphilia, and her responses. I show that a female poet had different access to many of the poetic and social assumptions of Petrarchanism and of Renaissance society, which affects what she can say, and how she can say it. I look at Pamphilia's interactions with the relentlessly public world of a courtly love poet, and explore how her gender complicates her position as a Petrarchan subject. I am concerned with poetic and political aspects typical of Petrarchanism. These include the role of the beloved; the lover's emotional isolation; the multifaceted nature of Petrarchan desire, both erotic and socio-political; the importance of the gaze and the symbol of the eye; and the drive within Petrachanism for the poet's of constitution selfhood.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationDistiller, N. (1997). <i>"This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wroth</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21690en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationDistiller, Natasha. <i>""This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wroth."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21690en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationDistiller, N. 1997. "This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wroth. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Distiller, Natasha AB - Mary Wroth, the first Englishwoman to write a Petrarchan sonnet sequence, creates a counterdiscourse which comments on and contributes to English love poetry. Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is addressed from a female lover to a male beloved, and this thesis discusses the implications of this unusual Petrarchan gender configuration .It explores the ways in which Wroth's Pamphilia encounters, is affected by, and alters, the poetics of English Petrarchanism, showing how English Petrarchanism had developed into a discourse that assumed a male poet and a female addressee. By paying attention to Wroth's socio-historical context, as well as her genre, I discuss how and why Pamphilia encounters elements of English Petrarchanism that do not easily allow for a female speaker. Illustrating that gendered subjectivities form the basis of English Petrarchan poetics, I show how this is relevant in terms of the gender climate of the Renaissance. By paying attention to common-sense assumptions about 'appropriate' female behaviour, and the dynamics of the public performance that (especially Petrarchan) writing entailed, I explore the implications for Pamphilia, and her responses. I show that a female poet had different access to many of the poetic and social assumptions of Petrarchanism and of Renaissance society, which affects what she can say, and how she can say it. I look at Pamphilia's interactions with the relentlessly public world of a courtly love poet, and explore how her gender complicates her position as a Petrarchan subject. I am concerned with poetic and political aspects typical of Petrarchanism. These include the role of the beloved; the lover's emotional isolation; the multifaceted nature of Petrarchan desire, both erotic and socio-political; the importance of the gaze and the symbol of the eye; and the drive within Petrachanism for the poet's of constitution selfhood. DA - 1997 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1997 T1 - "This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wroth TI - "This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wroth UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21690 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/21690
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationDistiller N. "This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wroth. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1997 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21690en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherEnglish Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.title"This stage of woe" : the petrarchanism of Mary Wrothen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMAen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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