The Radical Rhetoric of Caterina da Siena

Abstract

The elusive and enigmatic Catherine of Siena was a woman ahead of her time, the first woman writer in the Italian literary tradition of women writers. A consummate letter writer, she wrote with extraordinary power and bluntness to the political and religious leaders of her day, as well as to ordinary citizens. Not only was she a savvy rhetorician and radical thinker, but she used an androgynous rhetoric that helps to answer why she attracted so large a following during her life, why high and low alike sought her advice, and why her letters and prayers remain so intriguing today.