'FEMINA PROTERVA, RUDE, INDOCTA […], CHI T'HA INSEGNATO A PARLAR IN QUESTO MODO?' WOMEN'S 'VOICES' AND LINGUISTIC VARIETIES IN SIXTEENTH- AND SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY WRITTEN TEXTS. (October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sanson, Helena
• Is Part Of: Italianist. Volume 34:Number 3(2014)
• Page Start: 400
• Page End: 417
• Publication Date: 2014-10
• Subjects: Italian language -- Periodicals; Italian literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Italy -- Periodicals; 945.005
• DOI: 10.1179/0261434014Z.00000000099
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0261-4340

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>This interdisciplinary essay brings together the history of linguistic thought and the history of women, investigating how women's 'voices' (here taken to mean women's use of spoken language in everyday life) were presented and described in a variety of literary works in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy. By examining an array of primary sources that range from poetry to theatre plays, from conduct literature texts to prose writings, women's habits in speech are discussed in relation to some of the existing linguistic varieties in use at the time in the peninsula, focusing especially on the native vernacular, the literary language — as it was codified in particular thanks to Bembo's <italic>Prose della volgar lingua</italic> (1525) — and Latin. Given that their use of spoken language was meant to be natural and devoid of embellishments, whenever women ventured beyond their usual linguistic contexts, they could easily be accused of affectation and artificiality in their speech.</p> </abstract>