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Genealogies of Fiction is a study of gender, dynastic politics, and intertextuality in medieval and renaissance chivalric epic, focused on Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso. Relying on the direct study of manuscripts and incunabula, this project challenges the fixed distinction between medieval and early modern texts and
reclaims medieval popular epic as a key source for the Furioso.
Tracing the formation of the character of the warrior woman, from the Amazon to Bradamante, the book analyzes the process of gender construction in early modern Italy. By reading the tension between the representations of women as fighters, lovers, and mothers, this study shows how the warrior woman is a symbolic center for the construction of legitimacy in the complex web of fears and expectations of the
Northern Italian Renaissance court.
“A groundbreaking study of Ariosto’s medieval sources that benefits from a vision that brings together gender
criticism and source criticism in heretofore unseen ways.”
Examines the figure of Bradamante in the chivalric tradition and in Ariosto's Renaissance-era epic.
“Establishing contrasts and parallels with little-known works of the vernacular narrative romance tradition, Stoppino displays impressive erudition and performs a service for the critical
discussion on Ariosto’s poem and on early modern narrative.”