Contents
Foreword by Rocco Coronato
Acknowledgments
Introduction. âThereâs a double tongue; thereâs two tonguesâ
Chapter 1 â" âA wonderfull thing to hearâ: paradoxes and the womanâs question as early modern literary traditions
1.1 â" Paradoxical argumentation and its fortune in early modern England and Italy
The classical tradition of paradoxical rhetoric
Universities, Inns of Court, and Italian humanists
The early modern paradox: the mock encomium as an epistemological tool
Between Italy, France and England: the case of Ortensio Landoâs Paradossi
A paradoxical development: the mock encomium and the argumentum contra opinionem omnium
1.2 â" The womanâs question and its paradoxical portrayal of the female sex
Literary antecedents and foundational texts of the womanâs question
The womanâs question in early modern Italy: Moderata Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella
The womanâs question in early modern England: the Swetnam controversy
1.3 â" The paradox of the talkative woman in early modern Italy and England
Italian talkativeness: from the Roman slave to the masks of the commedia dellâarte
English talkativeness: folktale shrews and Shakespeareâs Kate
The Italian cortigiana and the English shrew: a comparison
Chapter 2 â" The role of Italian mediators in the English debate on women and paradoxical literary tradition
2.1 â" Of women and agency in Ariostoâs Orlando Furioso and Haringtonâs translation
Female infidelity and homosocial relations in Canto IV and Canto XXVIII
Translating misogyny: omissions, additions, and alterations
2.2 â" Witty women at the court of Baldassare Castiglioneâs Il libro del cortegiano
An Italian turned English: Thomas Hobyâs The Book of the Courtier
A necessary presence: the ordering role of women in Castiglioneâs Il Cortegiano and Thomas Hobyâs The Courtier
2.3 â" Ercole and Torquato Tassoâs Dellâammogliarsi, Robert Tofteâs translation, and the âBishopsâ Banâ
âFained battles, fought in iestâ: paradoxical misogyny in Tofteâs translation
Misogynistic anecdotes and the Queenâs praise in Torquatoâs defense
Chapter 3 â" âSo sweet was neâer so fatalâ: the womanâs question and paradoxes in Shakespeareâs shrews
3.1 â" The Taming of the Shrew: a shrew-taming narrative in paradoxical terms
The pamphlet literature and the competing representations of the shrew
Petruchioâs pars destruens: coercion and resistance through paradoxes
Petruchioâs pars construens: the case of Kateâs new identity
âMy tongue will tell the anger of my heartâ
3.2 â" Something new, something old: the use of paradoxes and the womanâs question in Much Ado About Nothing
Idealised partners in Shakespeareâs Messina
âThou thinkest I am in sportâ: love talks and logical paradoxes
The church scene and the shift in the use of paradoxes
âGuarded with fragmentsâ
3.3 â" âMy lord is not my lordâ: paradoxes as figures of the soul in Othello
The stage misogynist and the effects of slander
âIt is their husbandsâ faultsâ: Emiliaâs defence of women
Iagoâs poison: paradoxes as cyphers of tragedy and power imbalances
âA word or two before you goâ
Conclusion â" Figures of thought and thematical dispersion
Opposite developments: the relationship between the womanâs question and paradoxes
The variable of gender in the form and function of paradoxes
The shrewâs ©ndoxa, women writers, and the resolution of the paradox
Index
