The Currency of Eros: Women's Love Lyric in Europe, 1540–1620 (Women of Letters)

"Professor Jones' book uniquely fills a huge hole in gender studies in the Renaissance. Its easy clarity of argument, its scrupulous care for detail, its just plain good story telling, and its theoretical sophistication make it an obvious candidate for the status of standard work." --Maureen Quilligan .." full of fine insights... a fine addition to a growing body of work on Renaissance women writers." --Renaissance Quarterly "In this forceful and perceptive study... Jones has fused gyno- and gender criticism superbly and produced one of the most important works on the European renaissance lyric in this decade." --L'Esprit Createur ..". this absorbing study encourages (re)reading, reflection, and debate on the texts in question, and revitalizes and reorients the reader's understanding of the function and potential of early modern love lyric." --French Studies ..". an intelligent, persuasive work... " --Italica ..". is richly suggestive of the range and variety of women's writing in the early modern period... " --Review of English Studies The Currency of Eros examines women's love lyrics in Renaissance Europe as strategic responses to two cultural systems: early modern gender ideologies and male-authored literary conventions. Introduction: Imitation, Negotiation, Appropriation -- The Mirror, The Distaff, The Pen: The Ideological Climate Of Women's Love Poetry -- Writing To Live: Pedagogical Poetics In Isabella Whitney And Catherine Des Roches -- The Poetics Of Group Identity: Self-commemoration Through Dialogue In Pernette Du Guillet And Tullia D'aragona -- Feminine Pastoral As Heroic Martyrdom: Gaspara Stampa And Mary Wroth -- Eros Equalized: Literary Cross-dressing And The Defense Of Women In Louise Labe And Veronica Franco. Ann Rosalind Jones. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 221-232) And Index.