The Turkish Embassy Letters : Self-narration in Letter-writing

Authors

  • Nicla Riverso University of Washington

Keywords:

Self-narration, letters, Orient, feminist

Abstract

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu recorded in letters her experience of travelling and living abroad with her husband Edward who was appointed English ambassador in Turkey in 1716. The letters, written in an unstructured and conversational style, give the impression of a spontaneous and casual compilation of personal correspondence to acquaintances, friends and family members even though Montagu kept copies, and carefully edited and polished her collection for a posthumous publication. Montagu positioned herself as more authentic and credible than previous (predominantly male) travel writers by drawing on her first-hand experience and adopting a plurivocal form of dialogue in her letters. Moreover, Montagu elaborated critical thoughts and commentary on Turkish society and used her writing as a political device: her celebration of Eastern culture served to strengthen her feminist authority in the fight for women’s equality in England.

Author Biography

Nicla Riverso, University of Washington

Nicla Riverso teaches as a lecturer at University of Washington. She earned her M.A in Italian (2003) and her PhD in Comparative Literature (2010) from the University of Washington. Her areas of interest are late Medieval and Renaissance literary culture in Italy and early modern textual culture in Europe. She has published a book, articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries on humanism and literacy, gender and theater as well as politics and religion in Counter-Reformation Italy. Articles on Isabella Andreini and Paolo Sarpi have appeared in Modern Language Notes, Annali d’Italianistica, Quaderni d’Ialianistica and Modern Languages Open.

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Published

2018-11-15

Issue

No. 11 (2018): Auto/biographie, polyphonie, plurivocalité – Auto/biography, polyphony, plurivocality – Auto/biografia, polifonia, plurivocalità

Section

Articles