Project description
How femininity was represented during the Renaissance
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536) was a prominent Dutch Renaissance humanist, scholar, theologian and writer. He wrote ‘In Praise of Folly’ in 1509 as a satirical critique of superstitions and the Latin Church. The character of Folly is a female rhetorician who has been interrogating scholars for centuries, but her gender has received little attention. However, studying Folly can reveal a potential outlet for women writers and theologians to express themselves. During the Renaissance, key figures such as Marguerite of Navarre and Louise Labé used the fool’s mask of Erasmus’ protagonist as a tool to express and reveal truths, enabling women to freely express themselves. The MSCA-funded Folie project will contribute to defining how femininity was represented and self-represented during the Renaissance by reflecting on the revelatory and positive value of Folly.
Objective
Folie: FOLly and the feminine in the RenaissancE
A woman rhetor, vituperating society’s vices and errors, destined to be misunderstood, self-ironic and suave, then harsh and moralizing, at last ecstatic and preaching: Erasmus’ Folly is an imposing figure, who has interrogated scholars for centuries with her unfathomable speech, presented as a joke but of momentous relevance. The orator’s gender, which has received very little attention by scientific literature, is, instead, crucial in answering from a new perspective the construction of the feminine in Christian literature and theology and revealing a possible expressive outlet and role for women writers and theologians. The fool’s mask, as donned by Erasmus’ protagonist and by many actual female writers of the Renaissance, is at the same time revelation and refuge, epiphany and hiding place; a symbol, in its insignificance and ridicule, of the very same scandal of the Christian religion, in Pauline terms. My project will therefore study how Erasmus and other key figures of the Renaissance-influenced by Erasmus' writings and located in the same theological tradition, such as Marguerite of Navarre, Louise Labé, and others- used the mask of the fool as a tool to express and reveal truths, such as the scandalous announcement of the Gospel, and to allow women’s expression. This approach will redefine the construction of the “feminine” in Renaissance Europe, focusing on the French Italian context, by reflecting on the revelatory, positive value of “folly”, intended theologically as the language of simple, scandalous truths. My project will thus contribute to the definition of the representation and self representation of the feminine in the Renaissance and, through the permanence in the USA and the according supervision, I will be able to present an innovative and much-needed profile of expert.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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00185 Roma
Italy
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