From Penitence to Charity: Pious Women and the Catholic Reformation in Paris (review)
Débat 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 Labé’s poésie and her satirical Débat: 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 Labé’s politics in both her poetry and in the Débat. To her, Labé’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 Débat, authored by Christiane Lauvergnat Gagnière, and an examination of the impact of the Débat, 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 Labé 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 Labé, whose voice, first heard in the sixteenth century, still appeals to us in this new millennium. ANNE-MARIE BOURBON Queensborough Community College, CUNY