Safo Novella : a poetics of abandonment in Barbara Strozzi's laments (Venice, 1619-1677)

Author(s)

Silvana Ruffier Scarinci

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Artes
• Defense date: 2006-08-15

Examining board members

Helena Jank; Paulo Mugayar Kuhl; Adriana Giarola Kayama; Mariza Correa; Laura Tausz Ronai

• Advisor: Helena Jank

Abstract

This project adresses in a critical and interdisciplinary way the Laments of the seicento woman composer Barbara Strozzi. This task is approached in three complementary steps: firstly an analysis of her most representative laments; secondly, confronting these works with similar ones from different authors, which enables us to understand the aesthetic and expressive ideals of the period; and thirdly the connections between these works and the cultural and ideological scenery that surrounds them. The voices from many women poets and musicians create a dense dialogue with the Venere Canora?s own singing voice. From Sappho to Gaspara Stampa, from Ovid?s heroines to Barbara Strozzi, they all express the pains of abandonment with the violent shades of erotic longing. I try to explain how Strozzi?s work fits into this tradition and how she constructs the figure of the abandoned being within a new poetic and cultural environment, permeated by the revigorating impulse of Giambattista Marino. Being the hostess of the Venetian Accademia degli Unisoni, Barbara Strozzi creates a music that dialogues with her male visitors in a language that wittily provokes, allures and bravely restates her position as a courtesan (AU)