Gora Character of Gora or Gourmohan

Gora Character of Gora or Gourmohan-

 

v Introduction:-

             “Gora is more than a mere novel; it is an epic of India in transition at a crucial period of modern history, when the social conscience and intellectual awareness of the new intelligentsia were in the throes of a great churning.”

-Krishna Kriplani

            ‘Gurudev’ Rabindranath Tagore was a man of versatile genius. He was a poet, playwright, novelist, educator, social reformer, nationalist and composer. He achieved “a perennial success Bengali as well as in English language.” He became Asia’s First noble Laureate, when he won the 1913 Noble Prize in literature for his Gitangali” or “Song Offerings. Two songs from him are now the national anthems of Bangladeshand India; the ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ and the ‘Jana Gana Mana’ respectively. Out of his twelve novels the famous are the novels of conflict like ‘Chokher Bali,’ ‘The Wreck’, ‘Gora’, ‘Ghare Baire’ and ‘Farewell, My Friend’. In these works, Rabindranath examined how the spirit of the age influenced the life of people.

v Gora; a central character of the novel:-

            Tagore’s ‘Gora’ is the work of supreme art. Among major characters like Binoy, Paresh Babu, Sucharita, Political, Andandmoyi, Gora is drawn as a central character. About the importance of Gora’s character Bhawani Bhattacharya says,

“The main character in the book Gourmohan

 or Gora has been created with deep sympathy.”

            “While a critic like K.R.S. Iyenger find

“Gora as the mouthpiece of Tagore’s ideal of

nationalism and internationalism.

            He further note, he is the most striking person ever created by Tagore in his fictional world He represent the nationalist and idealist youth of Bengal at the end of the 19^th century. He is an awfully powerful character and voice of Indian. He wants to declare only one thing “India is the land of Hindus.”. He is a violent nationalist. The sea-change which takes place in him is the real study of the novel.

v His Personality:-

            Gora has a well-formed personality. Even in his college, his professors call him ‘the snow mountain’ because he was ‘outrageously white’. Tagore describe him

            ‘He was nearly sit fee tall, with big bones and fists like the paws of a tiger. The sound of his voice was so deep and rough that you would be startled if you suddenly heard him calling”.

            His face was large and excessively strong. He had practically no eyebrows. His lips were thin. He had a very strong body and impressive physical features of an Englishman. Moreover he was self-confident, orthodox and obstinate. His great strength of will made him very self-confident and even arrogant and intolerant. So his Friend Binoy tell him plainly, “You have one great fault, Gora. You seem to believe that all God’s’ strength has been given to you alone’.

           

v The secret of is Birth and Parentage:-

            The secret of Gora’s personality which keeps him away from becoming an ordinary Bengali young man lies in his birth and parentage. Since birth, Gora himself did not know his real parent. He was neither Bengali or Hindu nor Indian at all. He was the son of an Irish man and English mother. She had been given shelter at Anandamoyi’s house during the Rising of 1857. She gave birth to Gora and died. Andandmoyi had no child of her own. So she adopted him. Krishna Dayal performed his thread ceremony and had him educated in Calcutta.

v  His Respect for His Parents

            Gora was a foundling in the family of Krishna Dayal and Anandmoyi. He got the child when he was posted the government service at Itawa. Since the very birth of Gora Anandmoyi had great affection for gora. He had lived with Anandmoyi and Krishna Dayal like their own son. Gora had great respect for Andandmoyi.. In her, he finds the true image of mother. He says,  “Mother, you are my mother. The mother for whom is been seaming all day was the item sitting in my room at home. You have not caste; you make no distinctions and have no hatred. It is you who are India.” .

            Gora had respect for his father Krishna Days, yet Gora’s mind revolted against his ways, He was on the verge of cutting of relations with his father, but Andandmoyi intervened and always tried to reconcile them.

v His Education:-

            Gora was a child adopted by Krishna Day and his wife Andandmoyi at the time of Sepoy Revolt in the north Indian 1857. At an early stage, Krishna Day thought to make Gora a priest. But Andandmoyi objected him idea. So Krishna Dayal, out of affection for Gora had go through the thread ceremony so that Gora might be considered to be a sacred Brahmin. Andandmoyi took due care of his education. Discussion between Binoy and Gora on India’s freedom and the position of women in India shows that he was a learned man. He used to contribute articles in the paper and Sucharita used to read them with delight. He was an orthodox Hindu and he had gathered quite deep knowledge on Hindu rites and Hindu Shatras. He was able to discuss religious matters quite authoritatively. Thus we can say that Gorra was quite highly educated and well informed on religious matters.

v Gora as Representative of Hinduism:-

            ‘Gora’ is a novel of discussion and ideas about contemporary social problem related to Hinduism. In it Gora is the most orthodox Hindu. Gora as an idealist believes in the noble ideas of Hinduism. In the initial career at college he was rather indifferent to matters religion like many young men in college. Gora used to ridicule the learned pandits, who visited the house of Krishna Day. But one old and much learned pandit met him and thought him the principle of Vedanta philosophy. It gave him the correct idea f the greatness of Hindu religion. And Gora gradually turned into a strong champion of Hingu religion. He also became ‘an orthodox observer of even minor rules of behavior’. Once he refused a cup of tea served by a Brahmo girl. As an orthodox Bengali and tradition bound young man, he began to dress like the Bengali farmers in rough clothes and began to put caste-mark on his forehead and his body.

v His view on Love, Women and Caste System:-

            He was the believer in love. When he discusses it with Andandmoyi, He says, “You can disregard the Shastras, but you must have regard for those whom you love. On status of women Gora says. ‘The scriptures tell us that woman is deserving of worship.

            In the best novel ‘Gora’ Tagore has raised many contemporary social problems and evils related to Hinduism and its adversary Brahmanism. Some critic have call the novel as a novel of ideas suitable to the spirit of the again. It focuses on the caste-system. Gora is quite orthodox in the institution of caste-system. He with Krishna Dayal, discusses the merit of a Brahmin family. He thinks that caste-system is the wisest method of division and labour and intellectual world. A Brahmin is devoted to the highest ideals of spiritual knowledge. According to Gora, ‘The Brahmin class is the class of the superman’. He believed in Hindu culture, tradition, rites, and ritual. There he performs the ceremony of penance after releases form jail on the banks of the holy Ganges.

v His love for Mother land:-

            Gora is a patriot and a great lover motherland. He has been great devotee to the moment for making his country free. Gora took the side of the student and the English Magistrate pushed him for one’s mother’s rigorous imprisonment. He did not like people who favour the Englishmen and follow their custom. Gora did not engage a lawyer and decided to plead his case himself. He explained boldly how the policemen unjustly beat up the boys. These evens lead Sucharita fall in love with Gora.

v His Love for Sucharita:-

            Sucharita was a beautiful girl of religious nature. She was brought up by Paresh Babu. Gora is at first a lover of Indiaand no girl attracts him. Yet he felt the memory of Sucharita hunting him in jail. Thus gradually he starts admiring the character, manners and thoughts of Sucharita. She too felt love for him. In the end of the novel Sucharita, wearing silk clothe met him when Gora found that he was Irish by birth He seeks the blessing of Paresh Babu for her marriage with.

v Conclusion:-

            Like Shaw, Tagore has made Gora the mouthpiece his ideals of nationalism and internationalism. In this respects, a critic K.R.S. Iyengar has pout out the symbolic significance of the Gora as following, “A character like Gora or the Kauliwhallah, become mother than a person; he become a poetic symbol.”

Gora Various Theme / Central Issues:-

Gora Various Theme / Central Issues:-

Q: - Try to prove that ‘Gora’ is pre-eminently novel aiming at social, religious, political and all sorts of constructive reforms. Or Give an estimate of Shri Rabindranath Tagore as a  social, political, religious, and all sorts of constructive reformer. OR Discuss ‘Gora’ as a great novel depicting the Indian Renaissance spirit. Or The concept of nationalism and internationalism of creator.

v Introduction:-

             “Gora is more than a mere novel; it is an epic of India in transition at a crucial period of modern history, when the social conscience and intellectual awareness of the new intelligentsia were in the throes of a great churning.”

-Krishna Kriplani

            ‘Gurudev’ Rabindranath Tagore was a man of versatile genius. He was a poet, playwright, novelist, educator, social reformer, nationalist and composer. He achieved “a perennial success Bengali as well as in English language.” He became Asia’s First noble Laureate, when he won the 1913 Noble Prize in literature for his Gitangali” or “Song Offerings. Two songs from him are now the national anthems of Bangladeshand India; the ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ and the ‘Jana Gana Mana’ respectively. Out of his twelve novels the famous are the novels of conflict like ‘Chokher Bali,’ ‘The Wreck’, ‘Gora’, ‘Ghare Baire’ and ‘Farewell, My Friend’. In these works, Rabindranath examined how the spirit of the age influenced the life of people.

v Tagore as social Reformer:-

            In all his works, Shri Tagore has sounded the echoes of the voice of his heart. Through his novels, drams and short stories, Shri Tagore has impressively suggested the need of eradicating numerous social, religious and political and other evils. For example, in his famous story, ‘The cauliwhallah’, he has impressively point out how in Indian enormous amounts the waste of in honouring negative social customs. ‘In the Hungry Stones’ he warned us against the danger of hollow superstitions etc. ‘Gora’ is essentially a patriotic novel aiming at India’s complete progress on the basis of social and religious reforms. Gora wants to serve Indiaby making Indiarevert to her ancient orthodox culture and glory. His patriotism is rooted in the strength of his intuition only. i.e. He resulted to resort to reasoning as he has blind faith in the India’s ancient culture.

v ‘Gora’ – A socio political novel:-

            ‘Gora’ is the longest and most widely acclaimed novel of Tagore. It deals with theme of nationalism and patriotism. It exemplifies the novelist’s vision of new India rising above the consideration of the cast, community and race. It is really a strong political and patriotic novel voicing the aspirations of the resurgent India. The central theme of the novel has a political undercurrent. The novel reflects the patriotic Zeal of Gora or Indian-Bengali youth. It projects all the important political question, the conflicts of the ideals between the east and the west. Thus ‘Gora’ has been made popular by various factors. In the words of Niranjan Ray in “Three novels of Tagore”,

“It is only novel in Bengal which mirrors faithfully toe social, political and cultural life of the entire educated Bengali middle class.”

v ‘Gora’;a mirror of social life of India Or A Social Evils:-

            In the best novel ‘Gora’ Tagore has raised many contemporary social problems and evils related to Hinduism and its adversary Brahmanism. Some critic have call the novel as a novel of ideas suitable to the spirit of the again. It focuses on the caste-system. The whole society has been divided into four caste-Brahmins, Chhhtriya, vaishy and Shudras. Tagore has dealt with the caste system in the chapter twenty three through a dialogue between sucharita and Binoy. Gora, the protagonist, is quite orthodox in the institution of caste-system. He with Krishna Dayal, discusses the merit of a Brahmin family. He thinks that caste-system is the wisest method of division and labour and intellectual world. A Brahmin is devoted to the highest ideals of spiritual knowledge. According to Gora, ‘The Brahmin class is the class of the superman’. He believed in Hingu culture, tradition, rites, and ritual. There he performs the ceremony of penance after releases form jail on the banks of the holy Ganges.

v A critical note on the controversy between Brahmo Samaj and Hinduism.

            The novel has become a comparative evaluation of the Brahman Samaj and Hinduism. Many educated persons in Bengal had adopted the principle and practices of Brahmo Samaj. Founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The Brahmo movement had a deep and wide influence in Bengalin 19^th century Its chief aim was the reform of Hinduism from the evil of castesim,  untouchbility and high philosophical conception of God’s existence.. It wants to transform Indiainto western system of education , culture and politic. It wanted to change Hingu religion into a progressive religion. Gora is a perfect follower of Hinduism. He is the chairman of the Hingu Patriot Society. And another group is led by Haran and the family of Paresh Babu strongly believes in the principles of Brahmanism Moreover the economic and social condition of Bengal is also highlighted in the novel. In the countryside, Gora finds that how the people are totally looted and exploited by the English administrator.

v The Environment of Bengali Culture:-

                        At the cultural level also, the novel reflects the old culture of Bengal, its orthodoxy and superstition. The renaissance and reformation carried through Brahmo Samaj established by Raja Ram Mohan Roy on 20 August 1828. The Old culture was being replaced by a new type of culture, which was under western influence. Tagore as a reformist exposes the miserable condition of the unhappy widow and problem of woman of Bengalthrough the character of Harimohini. The old Bengali culture did not permit the freedom of love-marriages. The novel presents the complication in the matter of marriages of the daughters of Paresh Babu. Except marriage, there was no option for the young girls. In Indiamost of the marriages were arranged-marriages, which give rise to dowry and commercialization. Marriages were not based on freedom of loved. Sucharita was going to be married to Haranbut the end of the novel Sucharita willingly marries Gora. So the mood of free will prevails in the novel and the atmosphere of freedom in social life prevails in this great work of Rabindranath Tagore.

v The Atmosphere of Political Freedom and The Tyranny the British Rule

            At political lever, the atmosphere of revolt and preparation of freedom prevails in the entire novel. Gora grows through the slave people of Bengaland watches their sufferings and unjust punishment by a cruel foreign rule. Gora goes to the village Ghoshpara, where the students of Calcutta were put on trials. The students were punished with whippings. The English Magistrate Brownstrate sentences Gora for one month imprisonment for interfering with the police. The hero, Gora sets up the image and an atmosphere of strong freedom and fighter. He becomes a staunch nationalist to fight for the freedom of India.

v The spirit of nationalism:-

            Basically ‘Gora’ is a nationalistic novel. It deals with the spirit of nationalism. ‘Gurudev’ has mirrored the rural people of Bengaland their suffering in it. At that in 1901, Bengalwas in the grip of a political conflict on the basic issue of the Partition of Bengal under Lord Curzon. It created a political movement in Bengal. Gora emerges a national leader, who goes of country side of Bengaland worked for the betterment of Indian peasant. He remains a patriot through the novel. Tagore created a picture of freedom struggle and its achievements through the portrayal of their hero Gora. In a true nationalistic spirit, he as already taken a vow to serve Indian as her faithful servant. 

v The elements of Internationalism in ‘Gora’:-

            Although the novel, ‘Gora’, discusses many issues and social, political, cultural problems, yet at the close of the novel flows to the idea of internationalism. At the beginning of the novel, Gora is a staunch nationalist and orthodox. Hindu. But When he comes to know that he is the son of an Irishman, at one the novel flows to the ideas of internationalism. He thinks that he is now free from orthodoxy of Hinduism. He attains true human nature as spirit as well as identity, as he says,

 “Today I have become so pure that I can never the afraid of contamination even in the house of the lowest of castes.”

            Even in the epilogue of novel, we study the proposal of internationalism. At the end of the novel Gore comes to meet Andandmoyi, He laid his head at her a feet and said,

“Mother, you are my mother. The mother for whom is been seaming all day was the item sitting in my room at home. You have not caste; you make no distinctions and have no hatred. It is you who are India.” .

            Thus, Tagore has beautifully interwoven the theme of nationalism and internationalism, Brahmanism versus Hinduism in the novel. Therefore a critic Krishna Kripalni calls it, “

            The epic of novel in transition; it is to Indian fiction what Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peach’ to the Russian”.

v  Conclusion:-

            Indeed, ‘Gora’ is an epic-like work accounts the social, cultural, religious and political life of Bengal in the latter half of the 19^th century Bengal. It accounts the transition of an Indian society which progresses to achiever universal brotherhood. ‘Thus ‘Gora’ is contemporary and yet timeless. It is set in certain social class, yet it reach out towards the universal. It is a realistic novel. It also gives the pictures of the minds of mend and women of the time. It is indeed “a sage of human life” Finally Critic sukumar sen calls the novel Gora,

“A something like a Mahabharata of modern India.”

Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547)

Ø Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547)

Life and Works:-

          Born into the powerful Roman Colonna clan in 1490 (some sources say 1492), second child of Fabrizio Colonna and Agnese di Montefeltro, Colonna was betrothed at a very young age to Francesco Ferrante D'Avalos, the Marquis of Pescara, in a political manoeuvre that established an alliance between the Colonna and the Spanish throne of King Ferdinand D'Aragona. The marriage was celebrated in 1509 on the island of Ischia, off the coast of Naples, and the couple briefly resided together in the Neapolitan countryside before D'Avalos left on the first of the many military campaigns against the French that

were to occupy him for the rest of his life. Colonna herself returned to Ischia, to the court presided over by her aunt by marriage, Costanza D'Avalos, where the well-stocked library and lively court environment probably helped to encourage her own literary aspirations.

v successful woman writer; Colonna, Vittoria

          Vittoria Colonna, certainly the most renowned and successful woman writer of her age in Italy, was widely admired by her peers for her impeccable Petrarchan verses and her public image of unimpeachable chastity and piety. Her work went through numerous sixteenth-century editions, but these tailed off after the 1560s and subsequent editorial neglect belies her status at the forefront of literary production by secular women in the Renaissance.

v A single poetic ‘Epistle to her Husband

          A single poetic ‘Epistle to her Husband” written during his captivity by the French in 1512. It is all that survives of Colonna poetry from this early period. However she is cited with enough regularity by contemporary Neapolitan writers to advocate that her work was already enjoying some significant scribal publication in and around Naples, if not further.

v A religious poet woman

          Among the women religious poets, Vittoria Colonna is remarkable for the literary labour. Vittora Colonna was truly ‘a child of the Renaissance’. She was born at the house of illustrious parentage. She witnessed and participated in major historical events. She was an influential political and intellectual leader, a friend and advised to many of the greatest personality of her age. She was an outstanding poet admired and respected by almost all the contemporaries. The Colonna family members were a noble Roman family that played an important military and political role in the medieval and Renaissance Europe.

v Her Love Poems:-

          Colonna’s modest prevented the publication of her verses for many year, yet in 1535 Colonna’s first work appeared in print. It was a sonnet I live Upon This Fearful Lonely Rock. It is considered one of the best of her love poems, intense in faith and love. She speaks,

 “I live upon this fearful lonely rock

Like a sad bird that shuns the green branch

And the water I withdraw from those

I love on earth and from my self as well.”

          This is the moving and passionate expression of love, devoted for her husband. When she departed from her husband, she became the lonely lad. In the Epistle to Fernando Francisco de Avalos, her husband after the battle of wound in 1525 she writes,

My most noble lord, I write you this

To recount to you how sad and amid so

Uncertain desires and harsh torments I live.

Further she again state….

“I id not expect pain and sorrow from you

She feels frustration

Love of my father and love of you

Like two famished and furious snakes

Colonna in anger addressee her husband

“You live happily and know no sorrow

Thinking only of our newly acquired fame

You carelessly keep me hungry for your love

But I with anger and sadness in my face

Lie in your bend abandoned and lone

Feeling hope intends to mingle with pain”

v Literary Queen of the Italian Renaissance

          In 1538, an entire book of Colonna poetry was published Poetry and Letters. It earned her a title Literary Queen of the Italian Renaissance. She wrote 390 poems into three sections (1) Love poems (2) Spiritual poems (3) Epistolary poem.

v longing required by the Petrarchan format

          Her husband's almost constant absence from home, as well as his reputation for valour and heroism in battle, appear to have provided Colonna with the necessary contexts of loss and longing required by the Petrarchan format. This was reinforced in 1525, when D'Avalos died from injuries sustained at the battle of Pavia, and it is no accident that Colonna's activity and fame as a poet grew exponentially from this date. Widowed, independently wealthy, and childless, she retreated into a convent in Rome as a secular guest and resisted all attempts by her family and the pope to arrange a second marriage. The emphasis in her work on spirituality and the contemplative life was reinforced by the chaste and pious persona she promoted publicly, and aided no doubt by her wealth and aristocratic status, she was able to formulate a literary voice which commanded considerable respect whilst preserving the necessary gender decorum.

v Petrarchan linguistic and imitative models

          Colonna's poetry is stylistically impeccable, drawing on the Petrarchan linguistic and imitative models recommended by Pietro Bembo and others in the period, but also, particularly in the more mature work, rich, sensuous and innovative in ways that may surprise the uninitiated reader. Although the earlier, so-called 'amorous' poems are more traditionally Petrarchan in their emphasis on loss and longing for the deceased consort, later 'spiritual' sonnets embrace instead a far more positive celebration of divine love for Christ which is flavoured significantly by the poet's personal interest in the ideas and doctrines of reform.

No any desire for personal fame

          A first edition of Colonna's Rime was published in 1538, and was followed by twelve further published editions before the poet's death in 1547. A particular feature of this publication history is Colonna's personal distance from all editions of her work that appeared during her lifetime, so that she was able to maintain that her writing was in no way related to any desire for personal fame or acclaim (although this claim is perhaps undermined by the large number of manuscript collections of the sonnets that were also in circulation during the period). A further nine editions of the Rime were published before the end of the sixteenth century, when interest in the genre and its practitioners waned. Since then, attention to the poetry has been sporadic, and serious critical consideration has often been undermined by the tendency towards overly biographical readings of these highly stylised and complex verses.

v religious themes

          Colonna's published work is not limited to poetry. She also composed prose works on religious themes, initially as letters, but which were later published in collections of prose meditations and in separate editions. These prose writings demonstrate clearly her interest in religious reform, as well as a concerted attempt to define a role for the secular literary female that draws on the examples of the female 'apostles' who appear in the New Testament and in traditional hagiographies, most significantly the examples of Mary Magdalene, Catherine of Alexandria and the Virgin Mar.

Louise Labé(1520 or 1522-1566)

Louise Labé, (c. 1520 or 1522, Lyon – April 25, 1566, Parcieux), also identified as La Belle Cordière, (The Beautiful Ropemaker), was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born at Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet. A recent book has argued that the poetry ascribed to her was a feminist creation of a number of French male poets of the Renaissance.

v Biography

          Both her father and her stepmother Antoinette Taillard (whom Pierre Charly married following Etiennette Roybet's death in 1523) were illiterate, but Labé received an education in Latin, Italian and music, perhaps in a convent school. At the siege of Perpignan, or in a tournament there, she is said to have dressed in male clothing and fought on horseback in the ranks of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II. Between 1543 and 1545 she married Ennemond Perrin, a ropemaker.

         

          Lyon was the cultural centre of France in the first half of the sixteenth century and she became active in a circle of Lyonnais poets and humanists grouped around the figure of Maurice Scève. Her Œuvres were printed in 1555, by the renowned Lyonnais printer Jean de Tournes.     In addition to her own writings, the volume contained twenty-four poems in her honor, authored by her male contemporaries and entitled Escriz de divers poetes, a la louenge de Louize Labe Lionnoize.

          The authors of these praise poems (not all of whom can be reliably identified) include Maurice Scève, Pontus de Tyard, Claude de Taillemont, Clement Marot, Olivier de Magny, Jean-Antoine de Baif, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Antoine du Moulin, and Antoine Fumee.           The poet Olivier de Magny, in his Odes of 1559, praised Labé (along with several other women) as his beloved; and from the nineteenth century onward, literary critics speculated that Magny was in fact Labé's lover. However, the male beloved in Labé's poetry is never identified by name, and may well represent a poetic fiction rather than a historical person.

          Magny's Odes also contained a poem (A Sire Aymon) that mocked and belittled Labé's husband (who had died by 1557), and by extension Labé herself.

          In 1564, the plague broke out in Lyon, taking the lives of some of Labé's friends. In 1565, suffering herself from bad health, she retired to the home of her friend Thomas Fortin, a banker from Florence, who witnessed her will (a document that is extant).

          She died in 1566, and was buried on her country property close to Parcieux-en-Dombes, outside Lyon.

v Debated connection with "la Belle Cordière"

          From 1584, the name of Louise Labé became associated with a courtesan called "la Belle Cordière" (first described by Philibert de Vienne in 1547; the association with Labé was solidified by Antoine Du Verdier in 1585).This courtesan was a colorful and controversial figure during her own lifetime. In 1557 a popular song on the scandalous behavior of La Cordière was published in Lyon, and 1560 Jean Calvin referred to her cross-dressing and called her a plebeia meretrix or common whore.

          Debate on whether or not Labé was or was not a courtesan began in the sixteenth century, and has continued up to the present day. However, in recent decades, critics have focused increasing attention on her literary works.

Works

          Her Œuvres include two prose works: a feminist preface, urging women to write, that is dedicated to a young noblewoman of Lyon, Clemence de Bourges; and a dramatic allegory in prose entitled Debat de Folie et d'Amour, which draws on Erasmus' Praise of Folly.

          Her poetry consists of three elegies in the style of the Heroides of Ovid, and twenty-four sonnets that draw on the traditions of Neoplatonism and Petrarchism.

          The Debat, the most popular of her works in the sixteenth century, inspired one of the fables of Jean de la Fontaine and was translated into English by Robert Greene in 1584.

          The sonnets, remarkable for their frank eroticism, have been her most famous works following the early modern period, and were translated into German by Rainer Maria Rilke and into Dutch by Pieter Cornelis Boutens.

          

RENAISSANCE WOMEN WRITERS

RENAISSANCE WOMEN WRITERS

          Renaissance, series of literary and cultural movements in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. These movements began in Italy and eventually expanded into Germany, France, England, and other parts of Europe. Participants studied the great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome and came to the conclusion that their own cultural achievements rivaled those of antiquity. Their thinking was also influenced by the concept of humanism, which emphasizes the worth of the individual. Renaissance humanists believed it was possible to improve human society through classical education. This education relied on teachings from ancient texts and emphasized a range of disciplines, including poetry, history, rhetoric (rules for writing influential prose or speeches), and moral philosophy.

          The word renaissance means “rebirth.” The idea of rebirth originated in the belief that  Europeans had rediscovered the superiority of Greek and Roman culture after many centuries of what they considered intellectual and cultural decline. The preceding era, which began with the collapse of  the Roman Empire around the 5th century, became known as the Middle Ages to indicate its position  between the classical and modern world.

          Scholars now recognize that there was considerable cultural activity during the Middle Ages, as well as some interest in classical literature. A number of characteristics of Renaissance art and society had their origins in the Middle Ages. Many scholars claim that much of the cultural dynamism of the Renaissance also had its roots in medieval times and that changes were progressive rather than abrupt. Nevertheless, the Renaissance represents a change in focus and emphasis from the Middle Ages, with enough unique qualities to justify considering it as a separate period of history.

          This article begins with a brief overview of the characteristics of the Renaissance and then discusses conflicting views on how to define and interpret the Renaissance. This analysis is followed by a discussion of the economic, social, and political changes that began in the 14th century and contributed to the development of the Renaissance. The ideas of the Renaissance, particularly of humanism, are then explored, and their impacts on established religion, on science, and on the arts are examined.

v INTRODUCTION:-

          Renaissance is a French word which means re-birth, revival or re-awakening. It was a revival of ancient classical literature and culture. It was also a re-awakening of the human mind. The people revived their interest in the beauty of the human body and the world of Nature. It was rediscovery of man himself. It was a revival of the beauty of woman, the beauty of nature and the beauty of art and literature. It began in Italy in the 14th century with the works of Petrarch. The people had a deep interest in all the possibilities of human experience. They took life as a glorious adventure. About the literary spirit of the Renaissance, one can quote this line,

          “tongues in trees,  Books in running brooks,  Sermons in stone and Good  in everything.”

v Women’s status:-

          But one question always reoccurs every now and then-that is to say the consciousness of the feminists and the question of women’s status during the Renaissance. This question has been pondered over by many feminist critics down the ages, that was there anything like ‘Renaissance’ as far as women are during 15th and 16th century Joan Kelly is one of them who in her essay raised the question, “did women have a   Renaissance.” 

          She puts forwards many arguments regarding this matter. The testimony of the 15th and 16^th century’s women writers is one of the elements of the complex realities of Renaissance civilization that sheds significant light on the question of,  “whether or not and if so  In what manner women   Did have a Renaissance   During the Renaissance.”

v Women’s Endeavour:-

          Many women have shown their talent in many fields and “writing” is one such field. Many women during the Renaissance in Italy or France used to write but they have always been marginalized. It’s like saying that as time has its two aspects day and night; society also has its two sections, man and woman. In a natural condition of society women’s work is done unobtrusively behind the scene. Where society has become unnatural there might usurp the province of day, and both work and frivolity are carried on by artificial light.

          The same thing happened with the Renaissance women writing, who have shown their aptitude in the field of writing but their works have been destroyed. But the works of Gaspara Stampa, Vittorria Colonna and many more are still available to us translated by many scholars. Their writings are the proof of Renaissance women’s talent and contribution, as Lonaise Labe expresses by saying that…“when the strict law of man  No longer prevent women From applying themselves to The sciences and other   Disciplines, it seems to me That those of us who can,  (should) use this long craved  Freedom to study and to  Let men see how greatlyThey wronged us when  Depriving us of its honor and advantages.”

          They are able to impart the sense of individuality and authenticity to their voices in spite of the  fact that their work incarnates much of conventional Renaissance thought. They all had unique characteristics in their writing, and in expression of thought such as cult of antiquity, the concomitant predilection for ornate expression; the use of conventional topic and forms a love of balanced and polished diction, rare words, mythological reference and ideals of ancient moral philosophy, history and letters.

         

          The works of 15th and 16th centuries women have not been incorporated into the main stream of literary tradition, the Renaissance fortunes of their works range from best seller’s to ‘prohibited texts’, their own fortunes range from general acclaim and literary success to rejection and even persecution and their voices belies traditional assumption concerning the homogeneity of women’s literature.

Age of Reformation:-

          The age in which these women writers were writing was an age marked by various changes, social, religious and moral, it was a period of stories replete with new opportunities of which Renaissance men and women were joyfully aware. In such an age- How did women writers of 15th and16th centuries avail themselves of these new opportunities? They have contributed unimportantly and prodigiously to Renaissance letters and that many of them enjoyed contemporary literary success. However, while many women profited greatly from the availability of the new learning. It is also evident that the full ranges of opportunities opened by the humanist movement were not available to them in the same extent as to men clearly; the social and economic mobility made possible for males through the pursuit of the professional careers was not an available option to women.

          However, literary endeavors of woman are not the result of poetic success alone. Education for some financial independence; either in the form of personal wealth, individual or institutional patronage, access to the source materials and books, some form of encouragement is also a significant import. However, there are many other women who did not have, even a sight of Renaissance… as Ruth Kelso observes,  “the training of the well born  Girl was directed in every   Respect… toward fitting her    To become a wife… marriage  Alone was held the proper   Vocation for woman mainly  Because she was fitted only to   Learn the duties that belonged  To her as a sort of junior  Partner to her husband.”

Education:-

          Education was of central interest to the Renaissance humanists and their great contribution of making learning available to women cannot be denied. Theoretically, equal education was advocated for both the sexes and for all social classes. Many scholars of that time emphasized on women’s education. Erasmus was one of them who was opined that  “education should be for moral  Goals because study builds the Entire soul. It is not only a  Weapon against idealness but Also a means of impressing  The best precepts upon the   Girls mind and of eading  Her to virtue.”           Thomas Moore, similarly joins moral probity with woman’s learning, as he avers… “it is a women of eminent Virtue of mind should add Even moderate skill in Learning.”

According to Agrippa,  “education is useful for  Women in high position, but  rather dangerous to women Of less elevated birth and   In domestic sphere.”

So it is clear that we do not have women writers better than ‘man’ writers because as Laura Cereta remarks…“the true reason that   Woman are not learned is  Lack of opportunity, not  Lack of ability.”

          Gaspara Stampa, and other women writers had to face this distinction of education as the lack of opportunity to become writers. If Gaspara had not been a person having relations with aristocratic people, she would not have become a famous writer of her age.  So during that period of time noble status was indeed necessary to be a writer because of the class difference in education.

          Vittoria Colonna being a child of ‘The Colonnas’ a noble Roman family received a comprehensive humanistic education. Just like these two women writers Louise Lave also received an excellent education. That is the reason why she became an elegant original and highly accomplished writer.

Conclusion:-

          Thus one can find the typical Renaissance elements in the poems of these writers. They very keenly expressed the female situation and sensibility of the Italian Renaissance. Therefore Colonna’svery close friend Michelangelo, who wrote about her…“if your face and in your  Beautiful eyes  Full of every salvation  I aspire to all that  Heaven promises.”

 

Gaspara Stampa(1523-1554):-

Gaspara Stampa(1523-1554):-

v Introduction: -

     European Renaissance, reformation and Counter Reformation during 15^th and 16 century produced a few but talented woman whose works were felt to be more akin to the spirit of the Renaissance. For centuries, the definitions of the Renaissance have gone unchallenged, but recent criticism has questioned the very existence of the Renaissance. Joan Kelly in her essays questions

“Did women have a Renaissance’

     Indeed it was the traditional assumption about the experience women. She and other scholars stressed that women’s historical experience differs form en’s regarding changing property, relations, religions and social ideologies. Most Renaissance literature written by men referent women as a represent a deterioration in the state and freedom. Italy is represented by the women who ere member of upper class and were known for her poetic mystic latently, their contemporaries.

     The writers Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Gaspara and Gaspara Stampa all of them composed lyric poetry of high quality. Gaspara and Colonna ere married aristocracstic  lad. Gaspara Stampa was a cultivated Venetian Prostitute. All these threes women broke the strict confines of Petrarchan tradition with her own essentially person choice. Vittoria colonna paid tribute to married love and Gaspara Stampa depicted passionate and even obsessive love and its frustration. Three poet were themselves as lovers not as the beloved and the two married poets by sings of fulfilled love burst the confines of the Petrarchan tradition domination by the themes of betrayal and erotic frustration. Colonna and Gaspara wrote ‘devotional poem as well. They were noted patron of art and pressed over literary salons.

v Life and Work

          Gaspara Stampa was a prominent figure in 16^th century Italian literary circles. Even today many critic consider her the best female poet, Ital has ever produced. She was born in Padua probably in 1524. By 1531, her father a successful artisan, had died and her mother had moved the family to Venice.

          Gaspara’s brother a university student earned praise as a poet. The family home became a salon for the Venetian Scholars at which Gaspara and her sister presented musical performance. In 1544, Gaspara’s brother dies, but his fellow-poets continued to visit to the salon. Later on by late 1540s, Gaspara became a part the Venetian groups that met in different homes to discuss and

practice the art. At one of these she met Count Collaltino de Collato. Her affairs with him produced the poems for which she is best known. Here are few liens from her best known poem.

v Her dramatic contrast with Vittoria Colonna:-

          Gaspara Stampa is the most talented Italian Renaissance woman poet. She depicted passionate and even obsessive love and its frustration. She was the great woman poet of the Italian Renaissance. In both her life and works, she provides a dramatic contrast with another prominent woman poet of the time, Vittoria colonna, the great aristocrat and platonic beloved of Michelangelo. Vittoria Colonna was noble, while Gaspara was not so. Gaspara was a Venetian courtesan. Here poems except few poems on Christian repentance are devoted to obsessive sexual love, particularly to the torments of its frustration. Gaspara Stampa can not be regarded a courtesan in the ordinary sense. She was respectable woman and had enjoyed a social status of some dignity.

          Gaspara’s position as a dignified courtesan assured for her a certain degree of esteem. The complimentary poem praising her beauty and her artistic gifts seem full of sincere admiration even if they do show at times a faintly sexual quality. Count Collatino di collato was the lover and protector of Gaspara Stampa.

v Petrarchan spirit in Gaspara:-

          There is much of Petrarchan spirit in Gaspara as we find in the sixteen century love lyrics. The first of her sonnets for example tells how fist she saw Collatino on Christian as Petrarch first saw Laura on Good Friday. She aspires to go beyond the sphere of earthly love.

“If love with a new unprecedented spark….

Could raise me to a place I could not reach.”

She wants …

          “Why can not pain and pen combine to teach

          Such arts as never known shall find their mark?”

          Hence it is not Collatino, who has made Gaspara a poet, According to Ruport Graves..

“Gaspara is her own Muse”

Her love poem:-

          She refers to her absent lover in the third person in the initial stage and then shifts to a dire (terrible) address in which she predicts with sadistic glee(joy) the sorrow he will one day feel when he repents his cruelty. First she praises her lovers’ excellent qualities and ways to approach her. His excellent qualities have been her sweet chains. She feels her lover is like an intellect, angelic, and divine. She finds him of royal nature and of valorous (heroic) deeds. He seems to be sober in speech and dignified in show. She sees him then, when he is in the flower of his age and fair to view. He is mild in manner and in courtesy. As she is attracted to him, she begins to consider him like a sun. In a hyperbolic style, she writes

“A face more clear and radiant than the sun

Were grace and beauty were by love bestowed.”

          She feels captivated by his charming personality. His love attraction is felt as chains. She finally desires to be held by love and lover, so she says,

“Oh may love chose in the bonds to hold me over.”

          Equally it is interesting to not her first day of love, in “The first Day of Her Love- On Christmas Day. She finds him  in human form. She feels he might have chosen her to choose her heart to make his nest. Further, in love and confessional mood, she tells,

 “Joy full I embroiled this blessed change

So rare and so exalted.

          She feels each of her hope and thought was for him. Her love makes her tendered. She feels that he is as noble as is the sun rising or setting. She finds her lover’s beauty is dug within her heart. She feels that he has drown her form herself and made…        

“Now that to you I’m made,

You become with me a single one.”

          In one more poem With You My Heart World Rove (Roam),she finds her heart going with her lover on voyaging. Then the poem is directed towards sob and sighs.

“But my sighs will be companions on

your way my cries and sobbing too.”

          She then wants her lover tha when his comrades forske him, he will know how he has mistaken. But when the love returns, she in her sonnet says,

“I bless, O love, the troubles main fold,

All the injuries and all thea tears

All the distresses, whether new or old

You’ve made mie feel so much so many years.”

And she feel joy and writes, “All my past sorrow, I now put away.”

v Petrarchan style.

          Her poetry is written in the Petrarchan style. Most of her poetry is main concerned wit the theme of the rejected lover. The unrecognized lover in her poetry was based perhaps Count Collaltino di Collato. The majority of her poems deals explicitly wit her love affair. Stampa’s unconventional life as ‘a musical performer at men’s homes’ makes her an exception and controversial literary figure.

v Her noteworthy literary work The Rime:- 

          Only three sonnets which written by Stampa were ever published during her lifetime. The Rime, her noteworthy literary work, which contained three hundred and eleven poems, was edited and published by her sister, Cassandra after Stampa’s death. The Rime did not attract the readers so soon the Rime went out of print, only to re-merge in 1738 in reedited by Lusia Bergalli. The sonnets in the Rime are written in the Petrarchan tradition which was a typical style of sixteenth century poets. The Rime is divided into tow section. The first section of the Rime contains Stampa’s love poetry and the second part of the Rime contains poems which were dedicated to renowned figures of sixteenth century Venetian Society.

v Diary form:-

Stampa's collection of poems has a diary form: Gaspara expresses happiness and emotional distresses, and her 311 poems are one of the most important collections of female poetry of the 16th century. This collection was published after her death by her sister Cassandra, and dedicated to Giovanni Della Casa. The German poet, Rilke, refers to Gaspara Stampa in the first of his Duino Elegies; which is often considered his greatest work.