Torquato Tasso il "Discorso della virtù feminile e donnesca"

TORQUATO TASSO AND THE DISCORSO DELLA VIRTU' FEMINILE E DONNESCA The essay shows an innovative interpretation of the Discorso, linked, together with the Dialoghi, to the contradiction between Platonism and Aristotelianism within Tasso’s thought. On the one hand, Tasso’s work strengthens the traditional idea of women’s natural inferiority, but at the same time, through the “heroic women” typology, he reverses this belief recognizing the equality of nature between men and women. Two features, in particular, are reconstructed: the inner and mystical nature of the Discorso, and on the other hand, the substantial courtly world representing its historical reference, with on the background the troubled Erasmian Christianity and the women representing its protagonists in Italy