Ladies Errant

“[A] fascinating and provocative discussion of the problem of female ‘errancy’ in sixteenth-century Italian society and the often complex, if not ambiguous, depictions of unconventional women in both literary texts and festive culture.” - Jennifer Selwyn , Sixteenth Century Journal

“Drawing the boundaries dictating the limits of ‘decent’ behavior for women in sixteenth-century Italy involved demonstrating the punishments in store for transgressors. The five chapters of Ladies Errant, which are essentially five case studies with a connecting theme, show that while fictional heroines of Renaissance epic poems might cross these boundaries with impunity, real women suffered, especially if their transgressions were sexual. . . . These sophisticated, well-written studies of diverse literary, historical, and visual errancies are additionally connected by the application of a common Lacanian perspective.” - , TLS

“Highly recommended.” - L. E. Mitchell , Choice

“In this elegant book, lucid in design and exposition, Deanna Shemek studies female errancy as displayed in four texts. . . . [W]ith grace and agility. . . she brings together separate endeavors in a persuasive unity that greatly illuminates our understandings of women’s position in the social order of early modern Italy.” - Margaret L. King , Journal of Women's History

"Ladies Errant is a brilliant piece of scholarship which makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Ariosto, of early modern representations of gender, and of the ideological dynamics that link gender tightly with other social-political structures. It will be important to anyone interested in questions of gender in the European early modern period." - Albert Russell Ascoli, University of California, Berkeley

"A far-reaching and innovative work with important and suggestive revisions of previous notions of errancy and feminine behavior in Renaissance Italy. Ladies Errant succeeds brilliantly in weaving together texts by providing sophisticated theoretical framings that are at once subtle and powerful." - Margaret F. Rosenthal, University of Southern California