Self Presentation in Veronica Franco and Michel de Montaigne
... Veronica Franco, the famed courtesan of the sixteenth century, led a fantastically intriguing life. ... Michel de Montaigne lived a life that runs almost opposite to Franco’s. ... Instead of living a public life as Franco did, he confined himself to his family’s private estate in France to complete his writings. ... It is this difference in their lives that make the self-presentation styles of Franco and Montaigne so different. Veronica Franco lived from 1546 to 1591 and resided in Italy for most of her life. ... In Veronica Franco’s works her self-presentation is not only outright but borders on daring. Her style of presenting herself in her works is almost the complete opposite of Montaigne’s. Throughout Franco’s works, she puts her opinions on a certain matter first. ... In Franco’s Capitolo 16, which is briefly described as “A Challenge to a Poet who has Defamed Her”, she verbally assaults Maffio Venier and actually challenges him to a duel in poetry. ... Rosenthal states that in this particular poem Franco actually goes on to defend her entire gender (15). This is obvious in lines 64-66 where Franco asserts, “When we women, too, have weapons and training, / we will be able to prove to all men/ that we have hands and feet and hearts like yours” (163). Franco’s voice in Capitolo 16 is not exactly commonplace throughout her work. There is one aspect of her self-presentation in this poem that is common, which is her defensiveness. Throughout her works, Franco maintains a slight hint of the defensive, simply because of her position in life.