Louise Labe 2005

Renaissance Quarterly, Winter, 2005 by Anne-Marie Bourbon

Beatrice Alonso and Eliane Viennot, eds. Louise Labe 2005.

L'ecole du genre. Saint-Etienne: Publications de l'Universite de Saint-Etienne, 2004. 271 pp. bibl. [euro]18. ISBN: 2-86272-348-7.

This is a valuable collection of eighteen essays on the works of Louise Labe. In her introduction "En guise de Preambule," Beatrice Alonso explains the editors' choice of essays: she sees the Epitre Dedicatoire as a feminist manifesto. In her conclusion, she expresses the wish that this tome will, in Labe's words in her dedication to M. C. D. B. L, "serve as a guide" and be food for thought.

It should be noted that most of the essays have been previously published, except the introductory chapter by Alonso and the first essay by Eliane Viennot, who selected the essays with her. The last part of the book is a very comprehensive and extensive "Bibliographie d'Agregation 2004-2005," compiled by Daniel Martin, which will be very useful to Labe researchers. It shows that Labe's works have inspired many scholars to produce books, essays, and articles. Therefore, given such a large quantity of works to choose from, this collection of essays had to be selective.

Most of the essays are in French, with two in English and one in Italian, and they are by scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. The choice of essays in this collection is reflective of the universality and the appeal of Labe's work. However, some critics such as Edith Joyce Benkov, Ann Rosalind Jones, Kazimierz Kupisz, Caridad Martinez, and Sharlene May Poliner are unfortunately not represented. In some instances, Alonso explains, these authors' writings could not be included because of restrictive publishing rights.

After the introductory chapter the collection is divided into three parts. The first part, "Generalites," mostly probes the various facets of Labe's feminism. To begin, Eliane Viennot examines the spread and influence of feminism at the time, while Francois Rigolot specifically explores the ambiguities of censorship for dames Lyonnaises such as Louise. Michele Weil Bergougnoux demonstrates that Labe's dialogie led her to the affirmation of self and to writing. Gabriel-Andre Perouse, by comparing the poetry of Labe and Taillemont, which he links to Jeanne Flore's Contes Amoureux, views all three as similar feminists. Christine Clark-Evans examines closely the preface to the Debat that, she concludes, is a program of instruction, a guide and an example "to encourage feminine and masculine writing ... in a literary progression toward enlightenment." Finally, Evelyne Berriot-Salvadore provides a significant list of early feminist writers. In addition, she analyzes the works of two little-known writers at the end of the sixteenth century, Gabrielle Coignard and Marie Le Gendre, who were most likely influenced by Labe. She concludes that Labe's unique views left a "rich legacy" which subsequent women writers have well heeded.

The second part of the book, "Louise Labe Lyrique," focuses principally on Labe's poetry. Deborah Lesko Baker examines Sonnets 13 and 14, where she sees a subversion and transcendence of the Petrarchan tradition that gives way to "the emergence of a poetic voice that both incarnates and demands growth and change in the Petrarchan lyric tradition." Paolo Budini analyzes Labe's Italian Sonnet, which many critics ignore, and explores Italian influence on her form (language) and her content (Petrarchism). This sonnet is also analyzed by Francoise Leclerc, who insists on its importance in the Canzoniere. She considers it to be a fundamental link not only between the sonnets, but also the elegies and the Debat.

The last section of the book, "Autour d'un Debat," centers mostly on Labe's prose. Francoise Charpentier, in the first of her two essays, concludes that the Debat is a "false debate" since folie and amour cannot live without each other. Moreover, in her other essay, this critic sees a close bond between Labe's poesie and her satirical Debat: in all these works many facets of love are depicted and debated to reveal a close relationship between love and writing. In the same way, Marie Madeleine Fontaine invites her readers to look at Labe's politics in both her poetry and in the Debat. To her, Labe's goal is a secret understanding and mutual exchange of rapports between women and men in both matters of love and in the observance of society's rules. Two essays follow, one on the judicial eloquence of expression by the protagonists of the Debat, authored by Christiane Lauvergnat Gagniere, and an examination of the impact of the Debat, by Marie Rose Logan, who considers it to be merely "a verbal jousting."

This review had to be selective and could not mention all of the eighteen essays in the book. Overall, scholars and students will find that it is a thoughtful selection of Labe criticism with special emphasis on her feminist views. The collection goes a long way toward fulfilling the editors' objective that it "serves as a guide" to study, discover, and appreciate the works of Louise Labe, whose voice, first heard in the sixteenth century, still appeals to us in this new millennium.