The Absent Female Friend

Recent Studies in Early Modern Women’s Friendship

Bibliographic Data

ID12880972
AuthorsPenelope Anderson (Indiana University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume7
Issue4
Pages243-253
Publication date2010-03-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLiterature Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1741-4113.2009.00693.x
OpenAlexW2041293834
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited28

Over the last 15 years, the idea that the classical and humanist canon of friendship writings explicitly excludes women has shaped scholarship around that absence. Friendship before the late 17th century was masculine, ethical, and public; from the 18th century forward, it was female, inconsequential, and private. Recent studies argue for the presence of early modern women’s friendship in relations of utility, marriage, and homoeroticism. In addition, I argue, we should recognize Renaissance women’s claims to humanist friendship, or amicitia , as an intervention in political discourse through an appropriation of public rhetoric

Aesthetics · Appropriation · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Friendship · Humanism · Literature · Political science · Politics · Prosocial behavior · Rhetoric · Scholarship · Sociology · The Renaissance · Theology · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Philosophy · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Social Psychology

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