In “Rain Dodging,” (She Writes Press) author Susan Goodwin took a historical journey to learn more of Mary of Modena, an inspirational person who founded a court of women writers, something unheard of in the 17th century. Susan talks about how she discovered Mary’s story and how it grew into this new book.
I read that the book is part memoir and part nonfiction. What is the memoir portion?
Think of “Rain Dodging” as a triple helix of royal history, travel, and memoir. Irreverently peppered throughout the book, I twist parallel spicy stories of my own resilient, sometimes messy, feminist path.
What was it about Mary of Modena’s story that inspired you to write a book about her?
14th-century French writer François Rabelais declared women were not fully human beings, not endowed with a soul, and not created in the image of God, who, after all, was male. In 17th-century Christian tradition, women were seen as temptresses who personified original sin and lured men to evil. Something about the resilience of women who wrote and published in an age that did not support them brought forth an emotional reaction. English majors are expected to come up with their own paper topics. When I stumbled onto the late 17th-century Stuart court of Queen Mary of Modena, consort to James II, who at only 14 years of age had been pressured into marriage with a man 25 years her senior and forced to leave her idyllic Italian home, I felt the click, the heartbeat, the stab I feel when I find a topic that intrigues.
I imagine this involved a lot of research. What did you have to do to learn what you needed?
Part of the joy of research—and for me it is joyful—is the ability to explore freely. While attending a summer tutorial at Oxford, I was fortunate to conduct literary research with Dr. Peter McCullough, esteemed professor and Fellow of Renaissance Literature. For six invigorating weeks, I studied Eighteenth-century literature and the arts with the brilliant and delightful Peter. His course energized, making constant connections between history, literature, and artistic movements. While researching my final paper for Peter about poet Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea and her poem “Nocturnal Reverie,” I first came upon Mary of Modena, whose court was filled with women writers. A court of women writers would be extraordinary in this time. How did this come to be? How might these women have interacted and inspired one another? What was Mary of Modena’s role in this? I was hooked. Peter was encouraging about my book idea. True to his MO, he dashed to his computer and gathered up a beginning bibliography for me to pursue. This is what got me started on my years-long search for answers.
Mary’s court of women writers—was such a thing unheard of in this time?
This was very unusual and what spoke to me initially.
Was there anything to Mary’s story that surprised you?
How powerless she was to control her own life. As well, the connection between Mary and the women who originated ‘the Salon’ was an unexpected surprise.
What did you learn about the world of early European feminism?
I found a fascinating connection to the history of salon culture. The salon, an important place for the exchange of ideas, developed in 16th-century Italy. Salons encouraged socializing between the sexes and brought nobles and the middle class together. Salons helped facilitate the breaking down of social barriers. Here, women could be powerful influences. Between 1540 and 1560, women writers were numerous enough to be considered a significant group for the first time in Italian literary history. Salon culture flourished in France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, emigrating from Italy.
One such very important circle—and connected to Mary of Modena—was created on Ischia [Is’ kee ə], an island a mere 17 miles southwest of Naples, Italy. Ischia was a utopia for women receiving dispatches from husbands fighting in war zones while remaining safe from peril themselves. There, in 1509, mistress of Ischia Castle, Constanza d’Avalos, established a poetry salon. She was joined by her niece, poet Vittoria Colonna, a member of the House of Este, Mary of Modena’s noble family. Vittoria launched a “moveable salon” while visiting Duke Ercole II d’Este in Ferrara, just 45 miles from Modena. One such salon was hosted by Isabella d’Este, 1474–1539. Both Isabella and Vittoria were sixth-generation House of Este—Maria Beatrice of Modena was seventh-generation. By the 17th century, in Rome, Princess of Colonna, the daring Marie Mancini—also Mary of Modena’s cousin—was a major salon hostess and a published author of memoir.
Because the women of Ischia lived their adult lives virtually as single, they experienced complete artistic freedom unrestricted by male dominance. Many of the more important Italian salons of the day were led by the women from Ischia or were offshoots of one of their salons. Salon culture spread quickly through Europe. In fact, salon culture could be considered the precursor of modern publishing as a method of moving culture forward.
It is important to me that I pass on knowledge of the early vestiges of European feminism to teach younger generations of women our illustrious histories: Women’s studies go further back than Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem’s second-wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s or the suffragettes of the early twentieth century.
Did the writing impact you in any way?
The writing definitely reinforced my love of words, of stringing them together to make poetry. As well, I found a new identity through the historical context of the female struggle.
What do you hope readers take away from this book?
There are different themes in “Rain Dodging” but the one that keeps rising to the forefront at this stage in my life is the inner resilience to keep moving forward, to jump over obstacles. I also genuinely want my women readers to know that not only can one accept aging, but one can gracefully knock it on its ass.
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