Patriarchy as a category of historical analysis and the dynamics of power: The example of early modern Italy

Abstract

Patriarchy has been variously criticised as a rigid hermeneutic category since the mid-1980s. The postmodern turn has contested master narratives; recent feminist historiography has highlighted the multiplicity of female experience; and masculinity studies have called into question the dichotomy of male dominance/ female subordination by illustrating difference and hierarchy between men. This essay discusses some of these issues for the early modern period by bringing into focus two major historiographical trends that have shaped recent scholarship on gender: female agency and masculinity. Examining research on early modern Italy comparatively with historiographical traditions that have shaped British and American scholarship and drawing on recent scholarship and the author’s own research, the essay argues that patriarchy can be a useful category of analysis in current historiography if informed by updated theoretical and methodological insights into gender, such as the exploration of masculinity or more sophisticated conceptualisations of agency. Problematising and complicating early modern patriarchy involves the understanding of the meaningful process through which gender interacted socially and symbolically with other forms of power and difference in private and public space. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.