Gender, Rhetoric, and Print Culture in French Renaissance Writing (review)

Abstract

In this lucidly written book, Floyd Gray studies two interconnecting themes: the rhetorical strategies used in "marginal discourses" (such as misogynist, feminist, autobiographical, homosexual, and medical texts) and the impact of the printing industry with its attendant commercial interests on shaping French vernacular writing of the Renaissance. Gray's thesis is that Renaissance texts were steeped in the traditions of classical rhetoric and that, consequently, modern efforts to elucidate these texts that are not cognizant of such traditions—and that to replace rhetorical training with "ideologically charged" methods such as feminist criticism—fail to interpret them properly. This is particularly pertinent to his first chapter, "Discourses of misogyny," which treats the "Querelle des Femmes." Here, Gray contends that these pieces are essentially rhetorical exercises which may not reflect any social realities and whose meaning is often uncertain. He also examines the role assumed by publishers who, wishing to profit from a money-making enterprise, encouraged the propagation of such texts.