Renegade Women Summary

Renegade Women Renegade Women: Gender, Identity, and Boundaries in the Early Modern Mediterranean by Eric Dursteler tells real-historic tales of women in Mediterranean area, which has been a multi-cultural and multi-religious reigon with the Ottoman presence. The main focus of these tales are women who stand for what they believe themselves and not what their families chose them to believe. In the second part of the book, the story of two girls from two sides of Ottoman-Venice border is told. First one of these girls is Elena Civalelli, or Suor Deodara. Her story is quite complicated since especially in the beginning she isn’t the sole person who decides for her own fate. With the departure of her family, from the age 3, she is beheld by other people who only want what is good for her in their own ways. While the family’s insistence may look intimidating at first, for even today’s standards it is what a normal family would do. After all, who can blame a father for wanting her three-year-old daughter beside him? The intimidating part begins with the involvement of Stefan Bogdan, the arraged husband. At this point things get ugly and the family’s harmless desire is stained with a cunning plan. However, it is still understandable, if not justifiable, for a family to do whatever it takes …show more content…
The author clearly took his time and made a deep research on these women for the sake of shedding a light to what it was like to be a wonan in Mediterranean counrtries in renaissance ages, which is something partly seen in Gothic fiction from time to time. He also uses a simple and understandable language and avoids making subective comments and gives straight facts with their sources. The title of the work Renegade Women may seem like a comment itself, but it is nothing other than a definition for some of those women in the eyes of the loved ones and relatives they left