FRENCH 301 Books and Voices in Renaissance France

Innovative writers in sixteenth-century France and the ideas and forms of expression they explored in the early decades of printing. The persistence of oral culture and the search for a voice in print; the triumph of French over Latin as a literary language of subtlety and power; the collisions of propaganda and censorship in a century torn by religious strife; the emergence of new audiences and new strategies of narration and reading. Readings in prose works by Rabelais, Montaigne, Calvin, Marguerite de Navarre; poetry by du Bellay, Ronsard and Louise Labé. Periodic reference to resources of the rare book collection in the Wellesley library.

We are in certain ways ideally prepared by the twentieth century to understand the culture of the sixteenth. Like the modern age, the Renaissance rediscovered astrology and alchemy, unleashed an information explosion, explored vanished civilizations and other worlds, analyzed the self in new ways, revolutionized the laws of painting, exploded traditional notions of the solar system, resurrected the naked body.

Cultural issues will be a constant point of reference in French301, not as proof that the Renaissance is somehow "modern" (it isn't), but to structure our exploration of ways in which French writers of the 1500s confronted intellectual and artistic problems that still preoccupy their counterparts today.

Four main topics will orient our readings and discussions:

Beginnings. Contributions made by writers of the Renaissance to the development of a number of major literary forms: the novel, the ove lyric, autobiography.

The advent of printing. The most revolutionary mechanical invention of the Renaissance was one that directly affected writers and readers. We will examine how the printing press changed the expectations and habits of authors and their audiences, creating new, more complex relationships between them.

Women "beyond their sex." From the King's sister, the learned Marguerite de Navarre, to the rope-maker's daughter, the love-poet Louise Labé, women fought to overcome men's need to type them as virgins or vixens (Michelet in the nineteenth century called Marguerite "l'aimable mère de la Renaissance;" Calvin in the sixteenth dismissed Louise Labé as plebeia meretrix (a common whore). We will look at how women writers reconcile their subversive voices with the dominant discourse.

Problems of language. The originality and vitality of a culture are reflected in its verbal structures and in linguistic ferment and change. In sixteenth century France, Latin gave way to French as the dominant culture language, and French was transformed, across the century, from a rough vernacular into a literary language of subtlety, richness, and power. The problems of personal expression created by this shift are a fundamental theme in the works we will study.

Two 4-5 page papers, an oral presentation, and a term paper are required. No other tests or exams.