Letters Familiar and Formal (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series)

Co-edited and translated with Lynn Lara Westwater, Arcangela Tarabotti: Letters Familiar and Formal (Toronto, 2013) examines the life and work of a Venetian nun and protofeminist writer. Confined to the cloister, ArcangelaTarabotti fought back against the practice of forced monachization in treatises condemning male treachery and the consignment of unwanted daughters to convents throughout Venice and Italy. Her collected letters serve as a map to the wide net of literary relationships Tarabotti was able to maintain from within the convent and to the rocky path she encountered in asserting her voice in her literary works. The Italian edition of Tarabotti’s letters by Ray and Westwater was published in 2005 (Arcangela Tarabotti, Lettere familiari e di complimento, Turin, 2005).