FEMALE AGENCY IN THE EARLY MODERN ROMANCE IN BRITISH AND ITALIAN CONTEXT: LADY MARY WROTH, ANNA WEAMYS, MODERATA FONTE AND GIULIA BIGOLINA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY MERVE AYDOĞDU ÇELĠK IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE JANUARY 2019 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Tülin Gençöz Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Sağın ġimĢek Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Assist. Prof. Dr. Dürrin Alpakın Martinez Caro Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik (METU, FLE) Assist. Prof. Dr. Dürrin Alpakın Martinez Caro (METU, FLE) Assist. Prof. Dr. Kuğu Tekin (Atılım Uni., ELIT) Assist. Prof. Dr. GökĢen Aras (Atılım Uni., ELIT) Assist. Prof. Dr. Hakan Yılmaz (Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy Uni., ELIT) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Merve Aydoğdu Çelik Signature : iii ABSTRACT FEMALE AGENCY IN THE EARLY MODERN ROMANCE IN BRITISH AND ITALIAN CONTEXT: LADY MARY WROTH, ANNA WEAMYS, MODERATA FONTE AND GIULIA BIGOLINA Aydoğdu Çelik, Merve Ph.D., Department of English Literature Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Dürrin Alpakın Martinez Caro January 2019, 312 pages This study explores female agency in the early modern British and Italian context in Lady Mary Wroth‘s The Countess of Montgomery‘s Urania, Anna Weamys‘ A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney‘s Arcadia, Moderata Fonte‘s Thirteen Songs of Floridoro and Giulia Bigolina‘s Urania: The Story of a Young Woman‘s Love by concentrating on female empowerment in their romances on a historicist basis. New Historicism and Cultural Materialism scrutinise literary texts within their historical context. In this sense, the theoretical framework the study employs is the amalgam of New Historicism and Cultural Materialism. Regarding the historical context, it adopts a New Historicist approach based upon the analysis of each romance within its own period of production. Nonetheless, the focus is on Cultural Materialism since, although each approach hinges upon similar basic precepts in regard to contextual readings of literary texts, Cultural Materialism, built upon the principle of dissidence and polyphony in culture, takes into consideration the fissures in the dominant ideology to amplify the silenced and marginalised voices of the system. Within this framework, considering the early modern patriarchal social order which mutes female voice and forbids romances, the study seeks to recover the subordinate constituent of the early modern culture. It argues that the female romance as a dissident genre, female romance authors owing to act of writing and the female characters in each romance via various adventures defying iv the patriarchal prescriptions challenge the gendered hierarchical structure, the patriarchal discourse, the patriarchal construction of femininity and the biased patriarchal institutions of the early modern period in order to foreground female agency, to amplify female voice and to accentuate female experience. Keywords: Renaissance, Mary Wroth, Anna Weamys, Moderata Fonte, Giulia Bigolina v ÖZ ĠNGĠLTERE VE ĠTALYA ERKEN DÖNEM ROMANSINDA KADIN EYLEMĠ: LADY MARY WROTH, ANNA WEAMYS, MODERATA FONTE VE GIULIA BIGOLINA Aydoğdu Çelik, Merve Doktora, Ġngiliz Edebiyatı Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Öğretim Üyesi Dürrin Alpakın Martinez Caro Ocak 2019, 312 sayfa Bu çalıĢma Ġngiliz ve Ġtalyan erken modern dönem yazarlarından Lady Mary Wroth‘un The Countess of Montgomery‘s Urania, Anna Weamys‘in A Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney‘s Arcadia, Moderata Fonte‘nin Thirteen Songs of Floridoro ve Giulia Bigolina‘nın Urania: The Story of a Young Woman‘s Love baĢlıklı eserlerinde kadının güçlenmesine odaklanarak kadın eylemini tarihsel bir bağlamda inceler. Yeni Tarihselcilik ve Kültürel Materyalizm edebi eserleri yazıldıkları dönem çerçevesinde irdeler. Bu sebeple, bu çalıĢmanın benimsediği kuramsal dayanak Yeni Tarihselcilik ve Kültürel Materyalizmin bileĢimidir. Bu çalıĢma, tarihsel bağlam kapsamında her bir eseri yazıldığı dönem çerçevesinde ele alması bakımından Yeni Tarihselcilik kuramını temel almakla birlikte, esas dayanağı Kültürel Materyalizmdir çünkü her iki yaklaĢım da edebi eserlerin bağlamsal değerlendirilmesini vurgulamasına rağmen, muhalefet prensibi ve kültürdeki çoksesliliğe dayanan Kültürel Materyalizm, sistemdeki susturulmuĢ ve ötekileĢtirilmiĢ sesleri kuvvetlendirmek amacıyla baskın ideolojideki çatlamaları dikkate almaktadır. Bu bağlamda, bu çalıĢma kadını sessizleĢtiren ve romans türünü yasaklayan erken dönem ataerkil toplum düzenini dikkate alarak bu kültürün ikincil unsurunu ön plana çıkarmayı amaçlar. Muhalif bir tür olarak romansın, yazma eylemleri sayesinde kadın yazarların ve eserlerindeki ataerkil öğretileri çeĢitli maceralarla reddeden kadın karakterlerin eylemlerini ortaya koymak, kadının sesini yükseltmek vi ve kadın deneyimini vurgulamak hedefiyle cinsiyetçi hiyerarĢik yapıya, ataerkil söyleme, ataerkil kadınlık kurgusuna ve erken dönemin taraflı ataerkil kurumlarına meydan okuduğunu savunur. Anahtar Kelimeler: Rönesans, Mary Wroth, Anna Weamys, Moderata Fonte, Giulia Bigolina vii To my dearest grandmother and mother viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Assist. Prof. Dr. Dürrin Alpakın Martinez Caro whose invaluable confidence in me ever since we first met in 2010 has been a triggering force to equip myself with academic knowledge as much as possible. It was owing to her ELIT 516 Literature in the Middle Ages, ELIT 517 Literature in the Renaissance, ELIT 607 Non-Western Contemporary Literatures and ELIT 618 Women and Writing classes that I was informed of myriad literary people whom I had never heard of earlier. It was thanks to her desire to broaden her students‘ horizon that I got familiar with several authors from British, Romance and Non-Western Literatures. It was one of those courses that made me acquainted with the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega whom I studied in my master thesis under her tutelage, and I would not have been able to dig deeper into the Italian literature but for her encouragement when writing my dissertation. It was her excellence in the Italian language that made me a lover and learner of Italian and an Erasmus student in Italy discovering the beauties of my dreamland for months. Advising me to focus on comparative studies, she has been the foremost supporter of my academic success. Apart from our academic relationship, Dr. Alpakın Martinez Caro has taught me life-long lessons such as being an understanding, encouraging and friendly person towards the students whom she listens to and helps solve their problems whenever they are in need and being kind, humble and honest in human relationships. Above all, I have learnt from her that what really matters to be an exemplary academic is the humane dialogue based upon personal integrity and cleared of hypocrisy and excessive ambition. I should thank her a million times for she was always by my side whenever I was most hopeless, whenever I was extremely sad and whenever I was extremely happy. Having signed the most important documents of my life including my marriage license and having supported and defended me whenever I grew weary, she has been more than a thesis supervisor to me. She has been a mother to me at METU. She has always been and will remain unique. I record my heartfelt thanks to her herein. I thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik, Assist. Prof. Dr. Kuğu Tekin, Assist. Prof. Dr. GökĢen Aras and Assist. Prof. Dr. Hakan Yılmaz as they have kindly volunteered to take part in my dissertation committee. ix I would like to express my wholehearted gratitude to my husband Yarkın Çelik who has been by my side whenever I need him. I sincerely thank him for being patient with me and for his support, encouragement, help, understanding and affection throughout the preparation of this dissertation. His love and confidence in me have been a source of motivation. Last but not least, my special thanks are to my family members who have always struggled for my education, happiness and comfort. I would not be where I am today but for their support, sacrifice and unconditional love. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to them as they have always stood by me in any decision I have made. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents Nebahat & Mehmet Aydoğdu and to my grandparents Sebahat & Mümin Öztürk. I am thankful to them for they have unconditionally loved me and never lost faith in me. x TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ..................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iv ÖZ ................................................................................................................... vi DEDICATION ..................................................................................................