The dilemma of the *individual in spiritual poetry of the French Renaissance: The example of Marguerite de Navarre and Clement Marot

My dissertation analyzes the dilemma of the individual as it is articulated in spiritual poetry of the French Renaissance. Lyric poetry, almost by definition, expresses the subjective feelings and thoughts of the individual, the 'l' of the poem. But the "individual personality," promoted by Humanists and condemned by Protestant Reformers, was a highly problematic notion in the early Renaissance. I show that the dilemma of the lyric 'I' crystallizes in the structure of the poems written by Marguerite de Navarre and Clement Marot. The poems develop as an exchange between humanistic and Christian arguments and often take the form of a dialogue. Monologic poems unfold as an inner debate experienced by the narrator. In some dialogues humanism and evangelism merge and produce original Renaissance literary figures, such as the child-teacher or the homo scribens. Monologic poems present a continuum of narrative structures which illustrates a changing attitude to human speech. In static negative poems, speech is perceived as a vehicle of sinfulness. In dynamic poems speech is an instrument of redemption. In static positive poems we encounter a redeemed and triumphant speech. The epilogue focuses on a spiritual poem in which speech transcends the categories of sinfulness and redemption, becoming an instrument of uninhibited self-expression.