This conference was made possible through major funding by the Women’s Board of the University of Chicago, and co-sponsorsed by the Adelyn Russell Bogert Fund of the Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Committee on South Asian Studies, the Department of Music, the Humanities Division, and the Weiss Brown Fund, all of the University of Chicago; and the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies

Introduction

Martha Feldman, University of Chicago

Session 1

Chair: Bonnie Gordon, SUNY Stony Brook and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (now at University of Virginia)

Music Fit for a Courtesan; Representations of the Courtesan and Her Repertoire in Sixteenth-Century Italy
Drew Edward Davies, University of Chicago (now at Northwestern University)

Locating the Courtesan in Lyric: The Feminine Voice in Madrigal Texts of Costanzo Festa
Justin Flosi, University of Chicago

Culture Sex-Sex Culture: The Arts and Love in Ancient Greece
James Davidson, University of Warwick

Session 2

Chair: Martha Feldman, University of Chicago

A Gift of Song: A Woman’s Madrigal Book
Dawn De Rycke, University of Chicago

“Realizing the Music”: The Courtesan as Singer and Composer in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century China
Judith Zeitlin, University of Chicago

Session 3

Chair: Elissa Weaver, University of Chicago

Defaming the Courtesan: Satirical and Invective Literature in the Cinquecento
Courtney K. Quaintance, University of Chicago (now at Dartmouth College)

Who’s Afraid of Giuliana Napolitana: Pleasure, Fear, and Imagining the Courtesan at the End of the Renaissance
Guido Ruggiero, Pennsylvania State University (now at University of Miami)

Newberry Consort Performance

The Courtesan’s Voice in the Italian Renaissance
The Newberry Consort

Saturday, April 6, at the University of Chicago

Session 4

Chair: James Redfield, University of Chicago

A “Courtesan’s” Sacred Songs: Intent and Intertextuality in Barbara Strozzi’s Motet
Robert Kendrick, University of Chicago

Cutting a Good Figure: Italian Courtesans in Sixteenth-Century Costume Books and Illustrated Travel Albums
Margaret Rosenthal, University of Southern California

The Masculine Arts of Ancient Greek Courtesans: Male Fantasy or Female Self-Representation?
Christopher Faraone, University of Chicago

Session 5

Chair: Joan Erdman, Columbia College and University of Chicago Committee on South Asian Studies

The Cultivated Courtesan of Pre-Colonial India
Doris M. Srinivasan, University of Memphis, now emerita

Female Agency and Patrilineal Constraints: Situating Courtesans in Twentieth-Century India
Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, University of Alberta

Session 6

Chair: Kyeong-Hee Choi, University of Chicago

The Iconic Power of the Kisaeng (Korean Female Professional Entertainer) in the South Korean Traditional Music Revival
Joshua Pilzer, University of Chicago (now at University of Toronto)

Guriya Sevi Samstan: Post-Feudal, Post-Traditional Patronage for India’s Courtesans
Amelia Maciszewski, University of Alberta

Lecture-demonstration

Nautch Dance of the North Indian Baijis
Chitresh Das Dance Company

Sunday, April 7, at the University of Chicago

Panel discussion

Chair: Timon Screech, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

The Geisha and Their Role in Modern Japan: Anomaly or Artistes?
Lesley Downer, journalist and author of Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha
Chika Kinoshita, University of Chicago
Milio Matsugo, University of Chicago

Roundtable discussion

Cross-cultural themes, publication goals, etc.

Learn more about Center for Renaissance Studies programs.