Suzan-Lori Parks's "Venus" and the Petrarchan Tradition

Venus reconfigures the Western view of love pioneered by Ovid, adapted by Petrarch, and perpetuated by Shakespeare and others. Parks appropriates this tradition to dismantle its gendered models of agency, which she shows influenced modern scientific thinking. If Venus is about a black woman whose ve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Texas studies in literature and language 2017-06, Vol.59 (2), p.234-267
Main Author: VANHOUTTE, JACQUELINE
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American literature
African Americans
Allusion
American literature
Analysis
Authorship
Black literature
Creativity
Criticism and interpretation
Drama
Dramatists
Italian literature
Literary canon
Literary influences
Male gaze
Mimesis
Parks, Suzan-Lori
Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374
Petrarchism
Playwrights
Plot (Narrative)
Poetry
Science
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Sidney, Philip (1554-1586)
Source studies
Traditions
White people
Women
Womens literature
Works
Writers
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Summary:Venus reconfigures the Western view of love pioneered by Ovid, adapted by Petrarch, and perpetuated by Shakespeare and others. Parks appropriates this tradition to dismantle its gendered models of agency, which she shows influenced modern scientific thinking. If Venus is about a black woman whose venerean corpse is dissected by the white men who love her, it is also by a black woman who resurrects the venerable corpus of the dead white men she loves. Ultimately, Parks returns to premodern poetry because it allows for creative interventions precluded by modern modes of knowing.
ISSN:0040-4691
1534-7303
DOI:10.7560/TSLL59205