Renaissance Feminism

Considering a wide range of Renaissance works of nonfiction, Jordan asserts that feminism as a mode of thought emerged as early as the fifteenth century in Italy, and that the main arguments for the social equality of the sexes were common in the...

Constance Jordan is Professor of English at Claremont Graduate School. She is the author of Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models and Shakespeare's Monarchies: Ruler and Subject in the Romances, both from Cornell.

Renaissance Feminism is a very positive book; it should contribute mightily to the better understanding of 'social codes' and the oppression and self-expression of women in fifteenth-century Italy and all across Europe in the Sixteenth Century.

As a resource for those interested in the intersection of textual representations and material life,... Renaissance Feminism's rich portrayal of representations of women will prove invaluable.

Ann Rosalind Jones, Smith College:

This is new and exciting scholarship.... Jordan's broad but incisive coverage of pan-European debates about women and political order demonstrates how gender as a category of analysis sharpens the study of social, thought in general. An admirable book, meaty and provocatively argued.