A text rediscovered after a long period of neglect. A work by a 600th-century woman that already dismantled the conventions of a patriarchal context. The glittering world It is a book by Margaret Cavendish whose presentation took place last Saturday afternoon at the Mondadori bookshop in Piazza Roma, just like the more recent one dedicated to I am Rita.
Event progress
The meeting was organized with Stefania Arcara e Maria Grazia Nicolosi, both responsible for Genus. An interdisciplinary center for gender studies that conducts research to bring to light female figures too often forgotten in school and academic textbooks. Virginia Woolf She was the first to rediscover the figure of Margaret Cavendish. Since the 60s, the painstaking work of women writers and philosophers has led to the recovery of writers who had been erased or considered minor. Margaret initially found revaluation as a writer, and since the 80s as a philosopher. Maria Grazia Nicolosi is the translator of The glittering world, which constitutes the first utopian science fiction novel Written by a woman. The presentation featured a dialogue between Professors Arcara and Nicolosi: each asked the other questions about all the meticulous work they'd done.
The context experienced by Margaret Cavendish
Even in the 1600th century, women were still excluded from the world of knowledge; therefore, it is rare to find female writers of the time. It was equally difficult to publish, that is, to expose oneself openly. In that century, the patriarchy still tightened its control over women's lives, who were expected to be silent, chaste, and obedient. Nonetheless, the writings of two hundred women of the time emerge, but they constitute only 1% of all literature and dealt with subjects considered feminine, such asobstetrics or religious devotion. Margaret Cavendish was notorious in her time. Considered eccentric, extravagant, singular in the sense of bizarre or tending towards individuality, she entered the male publishing world. This also led to her being judged "crazy," since literature, philosophy, and science were monopolized.
There was the “stigma of publication.” She wrote her secular biography, started when she was a girl, because she wanted her narrative not to be exploited by others. She indicated how posterity should remember her; a creative project, Writing to change herself and her surroundings. Her writings reveal how the world was changing at the time; the English Revolution had shaken this up, and scientific discoveries had contributed.
The glittering world: the life and essence of the author
English feminists of the 600th and 700th centuries were pro-monarchist, believing that a royal woman was the ultimate expression of female autonomy. This was also Margaret's view of Queen Henrietta Maria, who was also eccentric. At court, she staged theatrical performances performed by women, embodying female self-celebration and Neoplatonism, as a response to a patriarchal context. Cavendish had always praised her widowed mother for her ability to manage the family finances and maintain parental authority over her older brothers.
An aristocratic but not particularly wealthy family, in which a tendency towards freedom was evident. William Cavendish, a poet, writer, and scholar, was her husband. Despite the considerable age difference (30 years), Margaret did not treat him like an innocent child; she stood up to him and rejected his paternalistic attitudes. In the 600th century, poetry was the quintessential feminine expression, to which women first devoted themselves; later, she would turn to writing.
The content of The glittering world
In the novel Margaret Cavendish presents herself as protofeminist, A forerunner of the women's liberation movement, she undermines the expectations of traditional patriarchy. She transcends the androcentric epistemological model, the assumption that man is Galen's misogynistic theory. According to Galen, male body temperature is higher than female body temperature. But the protagonist is saved from the shipwreck precisely because of her warmth; a justice against the patriarchal order. The protagonist subsequently becomes empress of the world she lives in, in the sense of being entirely the architect of her existence. This is where the author comes in, expressing her inclination toward independence.
A thorough research work
Maria Grazia Nicolosi did not limit herself to just translating The glittering world. She read and analyzed extensively about the author, who rejected all the conventions of the time. Cavendish was aware that the pursuit of male compliance has always been a form of slavery for women. Equity concerns not only knowledge, but also governance. Margaret was uninterested in being a mother; books, like children, were defined baby books. Her eccentricity led her to design her own clothes, inspired by Enrichetta Maria. Clothing that enhanced her physical appearance but was far from objectifying.
Margaret has a harmonious conception of nature, believing that it is a living organism in which all sentient beings coexist, aecosystem intelligence. It goes beyond, therefore, the scientistic principle according to which nature constitutes something abstract to be studied, but is self-regenerating. Feminist scholars, including Professors Arcara and Nicolosi, have validated her work by retrieving readings, notes from meetings, and research. This is an opportunity to revive the memory of female figures who have made important contributions to the field to which they are dedicated. The glittering world introduces the will to claim freedom as a woman.
