Productive Citationality and Gendered renegotiations in the Rime of Francesco Petrarca and Gaspara Stampa

Abstract:Beginning with Judith Butler’s discussions of authority and citational practice, this paper examines authorial subjectival positions, notions regarding originality and creation, and the use of citationality in the poems of Francesco Petrarca and Gaspara Stampa. Fundamental to the poetic investments of each are discussions of loss, possession, gender, and conception, with conception being represented both artistically and literally. Whereas Petrarch is frequently regarded by critics as an “originator” while his many borrowings from the classical and troubadour traditions are minimized, Stampa has often been historically—and erroneously—cast as an imitator who produces derivative poetry. Yet, not only are Stampa’s citational methods highly innovative, they are specifically managed to allow her to critique and supplant the Petrarchan model, by privileging her own text and the female body.