Theorizing Gender Nation Building and Female Mythology in the Ciceronian Quarrel

• Published in: Writing Beloveds pp. 133 - 162
• Main Author: Feng, Aileen
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto University of Toronto Press 20.02.2017
• Subjects: Artists; Arts; Authors; Behavioral sciences; Classical literature; Communications; Concept of mind; Consciousness theory; Economic disciplines; Economics; Employment; Historical methodology; Historiography; History; History of philosophy; Humanism; Labor economics; Literary devices; Literary genres; Literary history; Literary studies; Literary style; Literature; Medieval philosophy; Metaphysics; Monopsychism; Neoplatonism; Occupations; Personality; Personality psychology; Personality theories; Philosophy; Philosophy of mind; Poetic meter; Poetry; Political debate; Political processes; Political science; Politics; Psychology; Social sciences; Soul; Writers; Writing; Written communication
• ISBN: 1487500777; 9781487500771
• DOI: 10.3138/9781487514716-007

In the mid-1480s, Paolo Cortesi (1465–1510) sent Angelo Poliziano a compilation of letters he believed exemplified Ciceronian imitation. He had hoped to prove to him that major model imitation greatly surpassed the eclectic style supported and practised by Poliziano.³ Rather than concede to Cortesi’s position, or even admit to the high quality of his letters, Poliziano replies with a Petrarch-inspired anecdote that recalls Petrarch’s own grappling with imitation. In the epigraph we see the image of the writer running alongside the tracks of his predecessors, a subtle echo of Petrarch’s self-identification with Bellerophon inRVF35 – a poem examined