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İKİZ VENÜSLER MİTİ ÇERÇEVESİNDE GIULIA BIGOLINA’NIN URANIA, THE STORY OF A YOUNG WOMAN’S LOVE ADLI ESERİ

Year 2019, Volume: 9 Issue: 18, 161 - 175, 25.07.2019
https://doi.org/10.33207/trkede.597919

Abstract

İtalya’da kadın sorunu üzerine yazan öncü bir isim olan Giulia Bigolina, yakın zamanda
gün yüzüne çıkarılmış Urania, the Story of a Young Woman’s Love (1552) başlıklı nesir romansın
yazarıdır. Bigolina protofeminist edebiyat açısından erken modern dönem İtalyan kültüründe
oldukça önemli bir kalemdir. Eserin girişinde anlatıcı bir cüce tarafından ziyaret edilir ve cüce,
anlatıcının bir ressam önünde poz verme düşüncesinin aksine, ona edebi bir eser üretmesini
salık verir. Benzer şekilde, romans kısmı da edebiyat ile haşır neşir, erdemli ve entelektüel bir
kadın olan Urania’ya odaklanır. Ana karaktere zıt bir örnek teşkil eden Calabria Düşesi ise
kendini yarı çıplak bir halde resmettirmektedir. Bigolina’nın anılan karakterleri oluştururken
tanrıça Venüs’ten esinlendiğini düşünülebilir çünkü döneminin ünlü ressamı Titian da “Venus
of Urbino” ve “Sacred and Profane Love” gibi çalışmalarında Venüs’ü resmetmiştir ve ikilinin
birbirine mektuplar gönderdiği ve Bigolina’nın Titian’ın resimlerine aşina olduğu
bilinmektedir. Yunan ve Roma mitolojilerinde ve Plato’nun Symposium eserinde Afrodit’in
dünyevi ve uhrevi temsilini görmek mümkündür. Bu çerçevede, bu çalışma, Bigolina’nın ikiz
Venüsler mitini bir araç olarak kullanmak suretiyle, Urania ve Düşes’i Venüs’ün iki farklı
algılanışı ile bağdaştırarak eserinin protofeminist amacını inşa ettiğini, karakterlerin karşıt
konumlandırılmasının dönemin kadını nesneleştiren resim anlayışını eleştirdiğini, kadınları
entelektüel gelişimlerini fiziki albeniden üstün görmeleri gerektiği ve onları edebiyat üreten
bireyler olmak için cesaretlendirdiğini öne sürmektedir.

References

  • Bigolina, Giulia, Urania: A Romance, Translated by Valeria Finucci, Chicago, 2005, The University of Chicago Press.
  • Finucci, Valeria, “Giulia Bigolina and Italian Prose Fiction in the Renaissance,” Urania: A Romance, by Giulia Bigolina, edited and translated by Valeria Finucci, Chicago, 2005, The University of Chicago Press, p. 1-35.
  • Firenzuola, Agnolo. On the Beauty of Women, Translated and Edited by Konrad Eisenbichler and Jacqueline Murray, Philadelphia, 1992, The University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Hesiod, Theogony. https://msu.edu/~tyrrell/theogony02.htm - accessed: 01.04.2019
  • Nissen, Christopher, Kissing the Wild Woman: Art, Beauty, and the Reformation ofthe Italian Prose Romance in Giulia Bigolina’s Urania, Toronto, 2011, University of Toronto Press.
  • Morford, Mark P. O. and Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, New York, 1985, Longman.
  • Plato, Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper, Indianapolis, 1997, Hackett Press.
  • Simons, Patricia, “Portraiture, Portrayal, and Idealization: Ambiguous Individualism in Representations of Renaissance Women,” Languages and Images of Renaissance Italy, edited by Alison Brown, Oxford, 1995, Clarendon, p. 263-311.
  • Yavneh, Naomi, “Review.” Renaissance Quarterly, 56. 4, 2003, p. 1172-1174.

GIULIA BIGOLINA’S URANIA, THE STORY OF A YOUNG WOMAN’S LOVE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE MYTH OF TWIN VENUSES

Year 2019, Volume: 9 Issue: 18, 161 - 175, 25.07.2019
https://doi.org/10.33207/trkede.597919

Abstract

The pioneering figure to write on the woman question in Italy, Giulia Bigolina is the recently unearthed author of a prose romance Urania, the Story of a Young Woman’s Love (1552). She is a pivotal author regarding the protofeminist literature in the early modern Italy. In the proem to the work, Bigolina depicts a scene in which her authorial persona is visited by a homunculus to urge her to produce a literary work contrary to her initial decision to passively pose for a painting in front of an artist. Likewise, the romance section focuses on the protagonist Urania who turns out to be a virtuous intellectual dealing with literature. Contrariwise, the Duchess of Calabria, who serves as a foil to Urania, has herself painted semi-nude. It is highly possible that Bigolina identifies Urania and the Duchess with the goddess Venus because the famous artist Titian employs Venus in many of his paintings such as “Venus of Urbino” and “Sacred and Profane Love” and it is known that they were contemporaries, exchanged letters, and Bigolina was familiar with his paintings. The dual representation of Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos refers to her double nature in the classical mythology and in the texts such as Plato’s Symposium. Within this framework, this study argues that Bigolina employs the myth of twin Venuses as a medium to construct the protofeminist concern of her work through her identification of Urania and the Duchess with them in that their juxtaposing positioning enables her to criticise objectification of women then-current in the art of painting, to encourage them to prioritise intellectual cultivation over physical beauty and to be producers of literature.

References

  • Bigolina, Giulia, Urania: A Romance, Translated by Valeria Finucci, Chicago, 2005, The University of Chicago Press.
  • Finucci, Valeria, “Giulia Bigolina and Italian Prose Fiction in the Renaissance,” Urania: A Romance, by Giulia Bigolina, edited and translated by Valeria Finucci, Chicago, 2005, The University of Chicago Press, p. 1-35.
  • Firenzuola, Agnolo. On the Beauty of Women, Translated and Edited by Konrad Eisenbichler and Jacqueline Murray, Philadelphia, 1992, The University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Hesiod, Theogony. https://msu.edu/~tyrrell/theogony02.htm - accessed: 01.04.2019
  • Nissen, Christopher, Kissing the Wild Woman: Art, Beauty, and the Reformation ofthe Italian Prose Romance in Giulia Bigolina’s Urania, Toronto, 2011, University of Toronto Press.
  • Morford, Mark P. O. and Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, New York, 1985, Longman.
  • Plato, Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper, Indianapolis, 1997, Hackett Press.
  • Simons, Patricia, “Portraiture, Portrayal, and Idealization: Ambiguous Individualism in Representations of Renaissance Women,” Languages and Images of Renaissance Italy, edited by Alison Brown, Oxford, 1995, Clarendon, p. 263-311.
  • Yavneh, Naomi, “Review.” Renaissance Quarterly, 56. 4, 2003, p. 1172-1174.
There are 9 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Makaleler
Authors

Merve Aydoğdu Çelik

Publication Date July 25, 2019
Submission Date May 22, 2019
Published in Issue Year 2019 Volume: 9 Issue: 18

Cite

APA Aydoğdu Çelik, M. (2019). GIULIA BIGOLINA’S URANIA, THE STORY OF A YOUNG WOMAN’S LOVE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE MYTH OF TWIN VENUSES. Trakya Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 9(18), 161-175. https://doi.org/10.33207/trkede.597919