{"product_id":"the-absence-of-grace-sprezzatura-and-suspicion-in-two-renaissance-courtesy-books-9780804739054","title":"The Absence of Grace: Sprezzatura and Suspicion in Two Renaissance Courtesy Books","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Absence of Grace\u003c\/i\u003e is a study of male fantasy, representation anxiety, and narratorial authority in two sixteenth-century books, Baldassare Castiglione's \u003ci\u003eIl libro del Cortegiano\u003c\/i\u003e (1528) and Giovanni Della Casa's \u003ci\u003eGalateo\u003c\/i\u003e (1558). The interpretive method is a form of close reading the author describes as reconstructed old New Criticism, that is, close reading conditioned by an interest in and analysis of the historical changes reflected in the text. The book focuses on the way the \u003ci\u003eCourtier\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGalateo\u003c\/i\u003e cope with and represent the interaction between changes of elite culture and the changing construction of masculine identity in early modern Europe. More specifically, it connects questions of male fantasy and masculine identity to questions about the authority and reliability of narrators, and shows how these questions surface in narratorial attitudes toward socioeconomic rank or class, political power, and gender.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe book is in three parts. Part One examines a distinction and correlation the \u003ci\u003eCourtier\u003c\/i\u003e establishes between two key terms, (1) \u003ci\u003esprezzatura, \u003c\/i\u003e defined as a behavioral skill intended to simulate the attributes of (2) \u003ci\u003egrazia, \u003c\/i\u003e understood as the grace and privileges of noble birth. Because \u003ci\u003esprezzatura\u003c\/i\u003e is negatively conceptualized as the absence of grace it generates anxiety and suspicion in performers and observers alike. In order to suggest how the binary opposition between these terms affected the discourse of manners, the author singles out the titular episode of \u003ci\u003eGalateo, \u003c\/i\u003e an anecdote about table manners, which he reads closely and then sets in its historical perspective. Part Two takes up the question of \u003ci\u003esprezzatura\u003c\/i\u003e in the gender debate that develops in Book 3 of the \u003ci\u003eCourtier, \u003c\/i\u003e and Part Three explores in detail the characterization of the two narrators in the \u003ci\u003eCourtier\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGalateo, \u003c\/i\u003e who are represented as unreliable and an object of parody or critique\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Harry Berger\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stanford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/01\/2000\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.88lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.02h x 6.04w x 0.71d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780804739054\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2001 pg. 1277\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReference and Research Bk News\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2001 pg. 184\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHarry Berger, Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Literature and Art History at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author, most recently, of \u003ci\u003eFictions of the Pose: Rembrandt Against the Italian Renaissance\u003c\/i\u003e (Stanford, 1999).\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Stanford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":40141663993971,"sku":"9.78E+12","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_ca47935d-85a8-4dd4-b0a8-768dabf83959.jpg?v=1654521041","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/the-absence-of-grace-sprezzatura-and-suspicion-in-two-renaissance-courtesy-books-9780804739054","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}