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Defiant Women: Gender-Based Violence in Renaissance Florentine Plays
Feb
24
2026
4:15am - 5:30am
On Campus Event - Old Library, Old Library 116
The Department of Transnational Italian Studies is delighted to announce “Defiant Women: Gender-Based Violence in Renaissance Florentine Plays,” a lecture by Assistant Professor Luca Zipoli from the Department of Transnational Italian Studies at Bryn Mawr College. The event is organized within Roberta Ricci's course “Gendered Violence and Femicide” (ITAL B217) and is open to everyone.
Please contact rricci@brynmawr.edu for more information.
Abstract:
This talk analyzes how female bodies are described, represented, and visualized, within the “Sacre Rappresentazioni,” the genre of religious theatre that was extremely popular in late-fifteenth century Florence. Martyred women are the main protagonists of these sacred dramas, as they are atrociously tortured and ultimately put to death because of their defiant behaviors and their deviant religious choices. In these plays, women’s bodies are constantly violated by the masculine environment that surrounds them because they refuse to conform to the pagan values of the authority and claim for their agency to embrace a different cult, the Christian religion. The talk shows the many forms in which gendered violence against female bodies is portrayed in the “Sacre rappresentazioni,” both in the texts and in the woodcut images that accompany the printed editions. I will compare texts written by male authors with a unique example of a woman writer (Antonia Tanini Pulci), arguing that the themes of female bodies and violence are treated quite differently when viewed from these two diverse perspectives. Finally, I will discuss the great popularity of those plays, showing that this obsession for female martyrdom mirrors a profound terror for women’s agency in the patriarchal Florentine society.
Speaker's bio:
Luca Zipoli is Assistant Professor in the Department of Transnational Italian Studies at Bryn Mawr College, where he is also affiliated to the Bi-Co Program in Comparative Literature. He holds a Ph.D. in Italian literature from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, where he also completed his undergraduate studies. He researched and taught as a Visiting Scholar at Princeton and New York University and was appointed as Fellow of the Italian Academy at Columbia University for the Spring of 2025. His field of scholarly interest spans a broad variety of topics, from Renaissance Epic to Modern Italian Literature. His publications in the former field include the co-edited 2 volumes of Lettura del «Morgante» (Olschki, 2026) as well as essays on Luigi Pulci, Antonia Tanini Pulci, Torquato Tasso, with special reference to how the themes of ‘otherness’ (gender, religion, cultural diversity) emerges within their narratives and plays.
Transnational Italian Studies Comparative Literature Gender and Sexuality Studies Career and Civic Engagement
Audience: Public
Type(s): Lecture, Seminar/Colloquium
Submitted by:
Contact:
Roberta Ricci
Bryn Mawr College welcomes the full participation of all individuals in all aspects of campus life. Should you wish to request a disability-related accommodation for this event, please contact the event sponsor/coordinator. Requests should be made as early as possible.