The Subject of Desire: Petrarchan Poetics and the Female Voice in Louise Labe

Renaissance Quarterly, Autumn, 1998 by Anne-Marie Bourbon

In her introduction to The Subject of Desire: Petrarchan Poetics and the Female Voice in Louise Labe, Baker states that her goal "is to present a detailed, integrated study of all four texts making up the author's 1555 CEuvres . . . incorporating early modern feminist and intertextual critical perspectives in an effort to show how Labe accomplished a fundamental reassertion of women's capacity for self-expression and a crucial restructuring of the identity of the traditional Renaissance lyric speaker" (4-5). This premise at first might appear bold when applied to Labe, whose writings were very much influenced by traditional currents, mainly Neoplatonism and Petrarchism. Yet Baker takes the risk, embarking us on a "detailed textual journey through Labe's work" to demonstrate that Labe's writings represent a stunning reversal of Petrarchan vision.

The strength of this book emanates from many elements. First, the scope of the work encompasses all of Labe's prose and a substantial amount of her poetry. Too often scholars have opted to analyze just the poetry or the prose, failing to treat Labe's work as a whole. Second, the organization of the book is noteworthy. After a brief introduction, each subsequent chapter deals with Labe's works in the order they were published: the Epistre - a key document in feminist studies; The Debat de Folie et d'Amour - her major prose work; and the elegies and sonnets. These chapters are followed by a conclusion.

Throughout the book Baker explores topics which she deems of particular interest in interpreting Labe's work, such as language, knowledge, solidarity, equality, change, empowerment and, naturally, love and desire. What seems the most provocative and exciting aspect of the book however is the unity which Baker sees and analyses in Labe's CEuvres. To her, it is a global and organic text following a diachronic and synchronic arrangement. From the Epistre to the dosing sonnet, Baker views Labe's volume of writings as a series of "movements from polemics to poetics, from theory to practice, and from public to private discourse" (164), which all contribute to establish female selfhood on the cultural, social and private stage. These diachronic movements delineate the engendering of the female subject in the Epistre, while it is personified and allegorized in the Debat and becomes more personal and internalized in the poems. Among the many issues which Labe examines, Baker writes, "the three that in my view confer the deepest synchronic unity upon the volume are those of relational reciprocity, personal empowerment, and unending human desire" (166).

Baker manages to make a persuasive case for her thesis. By means of a painstaking and profound analysis, Baker shows us how Labe's CEuvres transform woman from the Petrarchan, distant, silent, inaccessible, and passive object of desire into an active subject of erotic and artistic discourse. Throughout her prose and poetry, Labe demystifies erotic idolatry and, linking desire and power, she gives woman a unique and vibrant voice: creative on the literary stage and recognized and revered in society. Furthermore, in the area of love woman is no longer simply an object of desire. Endowed with vitality and the capacity for reciprocity, she can enjoy dynamic symbiotic relationships with others, and experience the vast possibilities of human love, be they ecstatic or painful.

As a whole, the book represents a unique and profound examination of Labe's prose and poetry. When she deals with the sonnets, Baker starts with a very original and convincing analysis of Labe's Italian sonnet, "so often dismissed as merely a dry technical exercise" (139); her other analyses of the sonnets are equally persuasive. Consequently, one can only regret that the author chose to treat only four pieces out of the twenty-four sonnets which Labe wrote, especially since the sonnet is the Petrarchan form par excellence and, in Baker's own terms, "the catalyst of its very transformation" (125). The author provides an adequate English translation of passages quoted in French, while ample notes show her vast knowledge and sound understanding of feminist Renaissance scholarship and modern literary criticism. An extensive bibliography with a competent index concludes the work. Baker's contribution is a unique and creative work, full of erudition, which constitutes a very engaging and informative addition to Renaissance scholarship.

ANNE-MARIE BOURBON City University of New York, Queensborough Community College