Pleasure of Writing: Critical Essays on Dacia Maraini

Vocal Marginality: Dacia Maraini's Veronica Franco

Paola Carn Vocal Marginality Dacia Maraini's Veronica Franco In Veronica, meretrice e scrittora (1992; Veronica, prostitute and female writer), Dacia Maraini presents her readers with her fictional interpretation of the Venetian poet and courtesan Veronica Franco (1546-91). Maraini does not intend to give us a depiction of Franco that is "true" to history, butrather "Un viaggio immaginario in alcuni luoghi della storia e della letteratura attraversole suggestioni di una biografia reale" (Veronica 10; "an imaginary journey throu'gh literature and history that is based on the suggestions of a real biography").1 With the figure ofVeronica Franco, Maraini's play explores places traditionally forbidden to the female: writing and prostitution . Both conditions determined for women a state ofestrangement during Renaissance society, as well as' in later periods. Yet, this "estrangement" brings Veronica Franco the paradoxical advantage of being, simultaneously, both on the margin and at the core of the patriarchal society in which she lives. A category ofwomen who share with prostitutes the same marginalized yet relevant social position is that of cloistered women. They are the other marginalized group of women allowed, under certain conditions, to have access to reading and writing.2 It is a nun that Maraini's Veronica Franco meets in her fictional stay at the lazzaretto, the quarantine station, during the plague, and it is with her that she sets off on her journey after having survived the epidemic. By choosing to feature the relationship between a mature Renaissance courtesan and a young nun, Maraini investigates the potentials offered to her female characters by the liminal spaces in their society. Both women ultimately refuse to live confined to a single "territory" and opt for a strategy of survival.that consists in wandering across social "borders." 179 Paola Carli .In this study, I will analyze the way in which Maraini combines these two figures of marginality, the writer-courtesan and the nun, and I will examine how Franco is presented as a border-' line figure, one attempting to translate andappropriate for herself the language of the patriarchal order. Veronica, meretrice e scrittora is not meant to be an investigation of the "historical" Veronica Franco, yet Maraini's presentation does justice to the complexities of Franco's life and work as a "honest courtesan" in sixteenth-century Venice. Born in 1546, Franco was introduced to the courtesan profession by her mother, herself a courtesan. Franco was renowned for her literary production (Terze rime, 1575) and confident of her erudition and her ability to entertain relationships with members of cultural circles, in particular Domenico Venier's prestigious literary academy~ Franco's artistic level and her active networking reached a high point with the "visit" of the future king Henry III of France, who was celebrated in Venice. Besides being' a refined and renowned courtesan, Franc'o occupies also a relevant position within a group ofItalian women who became well-regarded as poets in th~ Renaiss'ance: Vittoria Colonna, Chiara Matraini, Oaspara Stampa, and Tullia d'Aragona , who also was a courtes·an. They'wrote in the fashion of· Petrarchism, the preeminent style in the sixteenth century. Franco stands out as an innovative poet with respect to this tra~ dition, to the point that some critics (Natalia Costa-Zalessow and Margaret Rosenthal among them) define her as an antiPetrarchan poet. Among the poetical features in Franco's works is the use of the terza rima,. a metrical pattern that was used for love poetry in the fifteenth century (by Ariosto, for example) but that was not common for the same genre in the sixteenth century. The'terza rima allowed Franco more freedom ofexpression than was_ permitted by the Petrarchan model (Wend 42). Furthermore, Franco's literary production is richer in content than that of many contemporaries, in that she writes explicitly erotic poems; thus, she covers a wider range oftopics than does Petrarchism. Franco writes unambiguously about her profession , never denying its role in her life or its connection with her cultural activities. Franco used her literary activity for social advancement. She presented herself as a public figure and addressed her male 180 Vocal Marginality: Maraini's VeroniCa Franco audience on an equal footing. She was one of the few Renaissance worrien who had the courage to oppose a long-standing (male) tradition that systematically silenced female writing by declaring it dangerous to women's "virtue." The logic of this prohibition assumed that a woman...