Contemplating Vendetta. An Analysis of Anger in Italian and Spanish Women Writers of the Early

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Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center
2-2016
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Luisanna Sardu Castangia
Graduate Center, City University of New York
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CREATING WITH ANGER: CONTEMPLATING VENDETTA.
AN ANALYSIS OF ANGER IN ITALIAN
AND SPANISH WOMEN WRITERS OF THE EARLY MODERN ERA

By
LUISANNA SARDU CASTANGIA

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of
New York

2016
© 2016
LUISANNA SARDU CASTANGIA
All Rights Reserved
CREATING WITH ANGER: CONTEMPLATING VENDETTA. AN ANALYSIS OF
ANGER IN ITALIAN AND SPANISH WOMEN WRITERS OF THE EARLY MODERN
ERA.

by
LUISANNA SARDU CASTANGIA

This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Comparative
Literature to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Monica Calabritto

____________________________ ______________________________
Date Chair of Examining Committee

Giancarlo Lombardi, Ph.D.

_____________________________ ______________________________
Date Executive Officer

Dr. Clare Carroll, Ph.D
Dr. Lía Schwartz, Ph.D
Supervisory Committee

THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
ABSTRACT
CREATING WITH ANGER: CONTEMPLATING VENDETTA. AN ANALYSIS OF
ANGER IN ITALIAN AND SPANISH WOMEN WRITERS OF THE EARLY MODERN
ERA.
by
Luisanna Sardu Castangia
In the vast gamut of human emotions, anger is one of the most complex, provocative, and
enduring. From Greek philosophers working in antiquity to today’s most recent theories on
emotions, most scholars agree that anger has a multifaceted nature. This near universal
agreement across the barriers of time and geography stems from the following facts: in order to
exist, anger involves the participation of other emotions; anger does not have an opposite; anger
leads an individual to engage in an act of self-analysis and in an evaluation of other individuals;
and, finally, anger inspires action to right a wrong that has been perceived as injustice. This
sense of perceived injustice is what leads to the creation of vendetta for the women writers I
analyze in my dissertation. They achieve their vendetta through their act of writing, as they
themselves often assert. Like all vendetta, theirs grows from a sense of constant injustice and
systematic subjugation. Unlike traditional vendetta however, these women, because of their
status within society as women, could not take direct action to right these perceived wrongs.
Their need for revenge therefore had to be fulfilled entirely through the written word, with their
poems, plays, novels and short stories serving as the vehicles through which their anger could be
delivered. This dissertation investigates the connection between anger and the act of writing.
Specifically, it attempts to explore how anger served as a vital catalyst that prompted early
modern women writers to engage in the act of writing.
iv
AKNOWLEDGMENT
The writing of this dissertation has been one of the most challenging, yet rewarding
experiences of my academic life. Without the support and guidance of the following people, this
journey would never have been completed. It is to them that I owe my deepest gratitude.
Professor Monica Calabritto provided me with her support throughout the dissertation
process as well as my graduate studies. Her technical and editorial advice was essential to the
completion and the successful defense of my dissertation. Under her guidance, I have learned
innumerable lessons and garnered tremendous insight into the workings of academic research in
general.
I would like to deeply thank my supervisory committee: Professor Clare Carroll and
Professor Lia Schwartz. Their invaluable guidance, commentary, and feedback served to bolster
and strengthen the content of this dissertation. Their constant encouragement and belief in my
research helped to strengthen and bolster me personally, as I worked towards the completion of
this long process.
A special thanks goes to my friends in the department of Comparative Literature at
the Graduate Center, to my family in Italy, and to my partner in life, for their boundless love,
support, encouragement, and enthusiasm. They have been always there for me, lending an ear
when was I frustrated, encouraging me when I thought my research was not valuable, and
pushing me onward when I thought I could not finish. Thank you all, from the bottom of my
heart.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...……1
CHAPTER 1 Anger from Classical to Modern Authorities……. ……………………………13
1.1 Emotions in Plato’s Thought: Homeric Thumos and Reasoned Thumos……………..…..15
1.2 Aristotle’s Philosophy on Emotions: Anger as a Rational Response……………...……..22
1.3 Aristotle on Women’s Emotions: the Man/Woman Opposition
and Women’s Anger…………………………………………………………..………….30
1.4 Emotions in the Early Modern Era…………………………………………..……………37
1.4a Thomas Aquinas on Emotion: Anger as Irascible Emotion………………..……………38
1.4b Juan Luis Vives on Human Nature: Anger as a Violent Passion of the Soul…………....44
1.4c René Descartes on Emotions: Anger as species of hatred or aversion……….………….49
1.5 Contagious Emotions in Modern Theory of Affect……………………………………….53
1.5a Anger as a Contagious Affect……………………………………………….…………...58
CHAPTER 2 Tracing Women’s Anger: from Aristotelian tradition to Early Modern
Beliefs……………………………………………………………………………..…………..64
2.1 Ancient Greek and Roman Traditional Views of Women…………………….………….66
2.2 Medieval and Early Modern Perceptions of Women’s Anger………………..…………..77
2.3 The Stirring of Early Modern Women’s Awareness……………………………………...78
CHAPTER 3 Anger and Vendetta in the poetic style of Petrarchism: Gaspara Stampa’s and
Isabella di Morra’s Poetic Distortion of Desire………………….……………………………97
3.1 The Life and Death of Laura: Petrarca’s Unrequited Love, and the Idea of Desire……..103
3.2 Gaspara Stampa: Historical and Cultural Surroundings…………………………………111
3.3 Isabella di Morra: Historical and Cultural Surroundings………………………………..117
vi
3.4 Gaspara Stampa’s Use of Petrarchism: Analysis of Her Sonnets……………………….122
3.5 Isabella di Morra’s Use of Petrarchism: Analysis of Her Sonnets……………...……….129
3.6 Towards the Appropriation of Women’s Emotions: Desire and Anger in Stampa and di
Morra’s Sonnets……………………………………………………………………...………131
3.7 Beyond the Physical Death: Anger, Fear, Hope, and Desire for Immortality………..….141
CHAPTER 4 Practicing Murder: María de Zayas y Sotomayor’s Propaganda of
Revenge…………………………………………………………………………..………….151
4.1 Women’s Space in Early Modern Spain……………………………………….………..161
4.2 María de Zayas y Sotomayor: Historical and Cultural Background…………………….178
4.3 Il Decameron in Spain: the Influence of Boccaccio and Cervantes in Zayas’ novelas….185
4.4 Of Angry Lovers and Revenge: The Representation of Anger in Zayas’ Tales…….…..193
CHAPTER 5 Provoking Laughter, Concealing Anger: Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán’s
Satirical Portraits………………………………………………………………….…………205
5.1 Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán: Historical and Cultural Background……..……….206
5.2 Satire in Early Modern Spain……………………………………………………………209
5.3 Catalina Ramírez de Guzmán and la poesia de circunstancias…………………………218
5.4 Catalina Ramírez de Guzmán’s Portrayals of Society...…………………………...……224
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………...………235
APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………….242
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………...255
vii
INTRODUCTION TO DISSERTATION
In the vast gamut of human emotions, anger is one of the most complex, provocative, and
enduring. From Greek philosophers working in antiquity to today’s most recent theories on
emotions, most scholars agree that anger has a multifaceted nature. This near universal agreement
across the barriers of time and geography stems from the following facts: in order to exist, anger
involves the participation of other emotions; anger does not have an opposite; anger leads an
individual to engage in an act of self-analysis and in an evaluation of other individuals; and, finally,
anger inspires action to right a wrong that has been perceived as injustice. This sense of perceived
injustice is what leads to the creation of vendetta for the women writers I analyze in my
dissertation. They achieve their vendetta through their act of writing, as they themselves often
assert. Like all vendetta, theirs grows from a sense of constant injustice and systematic subjugation.
Unlike traditional vendetta however, these women, because of their status within society as
women, could not take direct action to right these perceived wrongs. Their need for revenge
therefore had to be fulfilled entirely through the written word, with their poems, plays, novels and
short stories serving as the vehicles through which their anger could be delivered.
This dissertation investigates the connection between anger and the act of writing.
Specifically, it attempts to explore how anger served as a vital catalyst that prompted early modern
women writers to engage in the act of writing. In a larger context, it seeks to ascertain how the
texts of some early modern women writers affected their audience. In order to do so, it is important
to gain an understanding of the role of emotions as tools of persuasion in the act of writing. The
effort to persuade an audience has constantly been a primary concern of writers. My dissertation
1
focuses on the production of Gaspara Stampa (1523-1553), Isabella di Morra (c.1520-1545), María
de Zayas y Sotomayor (1590-1661), and Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán (1618-1684). I seek
to explain the process through which these early modern women writers worked to affect the minds
and judgments of their audiences.
Each woman author wrote of her personal experience with love and pain, hopes and
dreams, and her relationship to her geographic setting or the people in her life. Anger was the
catalyst that provoked these women to write. It was the driving force that compelled action, and
through which they hoped to affect the minds of their readers. Through their writing, which was
compelled by their anger, they spoke of myriad other emotions, including love, longing, fear,
abandonment, and a sense of loss. These women experienced and wrote about a broad range of
emotions which were equally important as anger; these emotions shaped their identities and their
understanding of their world, while anger itself was the emotion that provoked these women to
take action, and write. Through their work, these women engaged in a series of critical analyses of
themselves, as well as the individuals and circumstances that determined the course of their lives,
including their lovers, fathers, or their community. Of the myriad of emotions expressed in their
work, anger, in particular, is the emotion that pushes each author to constantly and consciously
view their circumstances through a confrontational lens and often see others as their opponents or
rivals. Many theories on emotions have suggested that the manifestation of anger as a self-
evaluation involves as well the analysis of one’s opponent.
According to Plato, humans have a need to see those whom they perceive as rivals forced
to endure the same humiliation or to experience the same fear that they provoke in them. This
allows us to confirm that we are in a better position than our opponents by comparison. Similarly,
the early modern women writers that I analyze in my dissertation demonstrate this kind of
2