Towards the end of the fifteenth century in Italy an upwardly mobile, morally questionable, and highly erudite woman appeared on the social and literary circuit: the courtesan. Technically a prostitute, she rose above her often dubious beginnings to bask in the prestige accorded to society's elite. Although revered by some, her blatant transgression of traditional gender roles and class hierarchies offended many others. The writings of her detractors attempted to lower the courtesan's status to that of a common prostitute, by ridiculing her intellectual achievements and by depicting her as unclean and diseased. This thesis, which focuses on sixteenth-century Venice, will examine six works criticizing courtesans, and demonstrate what each work reveals about the dynamics of power in sixteenth-century gender and power relations, as they manifested themselves in the sexual arena.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.27962 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Pesuit, Margaret. |
| Contributors | Kroha, Lucienne, Paula Clarke (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Italian.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001616850, proquestno: MQ37227, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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