Alexandra Coller, associate professor of Languages and Literature, will give a special reading from her book, Women, Rhetoric, and Drama in Early Modern Italy. 

Sixteenth-century Italy witnessed the rebirth of comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy in the pastoral mode. In her book, Coller suggests that all three genres were, in fact, remarkably new - if dramatists’ intriguingly sympathetic portrayals of and sustained investment in women as vibrant and dynamic characters of the early modern stage are taken into account. 

This study examines the role of rhetoric and gender in early modern Italian drama, in itself and in order to explore its complex interrelationship with the rise of women writers and the role women played in Italian culture and society - while at the same time demonstrating how closely intertwined history, culture, and dramatic writing are.