Renaissance Studies Commons^™

Objects Of Desire: Reading The Material World Metaphysically In Marguerite De Navarre's Heptaméron, Catharine Randall

Quidditas

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where moth and rust do not destroy,

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

(Matthew 6:19-21)

A Renaissance Death For Medieval Theater: Reconstructing Stage Directions In The Plays Of Marguerite De Navarre, George Hoffmann

Quidditas

Vladimir: This is Awful!

Estragon: Sing something.

Vladimir: No, no!

—Beckett

Exemplarity And The Interpretive Frame In Marguerite De Navarre's Heptaméron, V. Stanley Benfell

Quidditas

Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron is one of the many works that have fallen prey to the contemporary fascination with indeterminacy and the poetics of failure. Increasingly, critics are writing of the "ambiguity" of the novella collection and the lack of narrative resolve that seems to characterize both the novellas and the discussions by the "devisants" that surround the novellas. My purpose in this essay is to contest this view. I intend to show that from a historical perspective, when the Heptaméron is seen in the light of the pervasive rhetorical concerns of late Renaissance writers, the prevailing critical view is …

Gastronomy And Sexuality: "Table Language" In The Heptaméron, Colette H. Winn

Quidditas

In his penetrating study on Marguerite de Navarre, Themes, Language and Structure, Marcel Tetel calls attention to the metaphoric usage of food in the Heptaméron. Critics, to date, have failed to pursue this line of inquiry. Readers accustomed to Rabelais's elaborate gastronomic depictions may be disappointed by the extreme sobriety of corresponding scenes in the Hemptaméron. Marguerite eschews the picturesque description of a generously laden table, the exuberance associated with this traditionally jovial event and the gigantism required by the Gargantuan legend in favor of briefer and often less colorful table encounters. Yet relegating these scenes to …

Distortion As A Means Of Reassessment: Marguerite De Navarre's Heptameron And The "Querelle Des Femmes", Deborah N. Losse

Quidditas

The crisis of sexual assault, with its many psychological implications, occupies a significant place in the narrative of Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron, composed in the first half of the sixteenth century at the height of the "Querelle des Femmes." If the storytellers conclude that parfaite amitié is with few exceptions inaccessible, it is in the scenes of sexual aggression that one witnesses the ascendancy of human passion over the formalized code of courtly love.