Le Cynisme à la Renaissance d’Erasme à Montaigne suivi de ‘Les Epistres de Diogenes’ (1546) by Michèle Clément (review)

Abstract

242 Reviews transformative imagination parallel to Daisy's ability to draft alternative versions (pp. 220-21). In 'The Swann Who Laid the Golden Egg: A Cautionary Tale of Deconstructionist Cannibalism in Swann' Barbour, playfully postmodern, imagines 'our Carol Shields, Narrative Hunger, and thePossibilities ofFiction [. . .] retitled Scholarly Cannibalism, The Shields Symposium, featuring an assemblage of rude guests who interrupteach other, bicker, and backbite as we not only gobble Shields's cooking but, in ignoringour hostess, dispatch her, too' (p. 280). Her closing conceit ofthe collection as mementomori bears even greater poignancy, given Shields's own untimely death shortly after this book went to press. Shields would have been quick to appreciate both Barbour's image and the spirit underlying this enterprise. Each of these books is tightly structured and thoughtfully conceived. Both make useful additions to the study of contemporary North American women's writing. University of Nottingham Susan Billingham Le Cynisme a la Renaissance d'Erasme a Montaigne suivi de fLesEpistres de Diogenes' (1546). By Michele Clement. (Les Seuils de la modernite, 9) Geneva: Droz. 2005. 288 pp. SwF 84; ?56.90. ISBN 2-600-00972-8. This is the firstbook-length study of the legacy of ancient Cynicism in the Renais? sance, a topic which has received little attention. Michele Clement argues that, far from being marginal, Cynicism was an integral part of humanist ideology in the firsthalf of the sixteenth century, finding expression in specific literary forms which bear its hallmark. To support this hypothesis, Clement gives a brief survey of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance sources and repositories which testifyto the cultural trans? mission of the Cynic tradition. Sources of Cynicism are fragmentary and in the vast majority of cases inauthentic (i.e. not written by practising Cynics). Furthermore, they vary from idealized portrayals by Stoic and Christian writers to subversive sto? ries and jokes, most importantly in Diogenes Laertius. For example, Clement focuses in particular on the letters of pseudo-Diogenes, published in a French translation in 1546, and of which she provides a critical edition (pp. 213-55). Yet these letters offer a rather po-faced and didactic version of Cynicism, which in part explains why they are rarely imitated in Renaissance texts. Clement's claim that the years 1530-50 are the apogee of Renaissance neo-Cynicism is problematic, since it is not always clear which version(s) of Cynicism she has in mind. Nevertheless, Clement builds up a sense of what Renaissance neo-Cynicism would have been through arguing by association. Ancient Cynicism can be associ? ated with a very wide range of moral stances and literary means of expression. This leads Clement to use Cynicism as a catch-all term, embracing such disparate ideas as following nature, the freedom of the individual, and an interest in the power of the spoken word, and encompassing such literary forms as Menippean satire, diatribe, dialogue, and mock encomium. However, these features of Cynicism are also features of numerous other philosophical and literary traditions. Given Clement's broad de? finition, it is hard to see which Renaissance works could not be considered Cynical, at least to some degree. Hence much of this book is devoted to texts which contain no references to ancient Cynicism, including the Cymbalum mundi and Le Discours de la servitude volontaire. The firsthalf ofthe chapter on Montaigne is an exception, since Clement gives an intriguing analysis ofthe exemplaire de Bordeaux, which shows Montaigne crossing out the words 'cynique' and 'deshontee' (p. 173) even when he is discussing Cynic sexual shamelessness in explicit terms. While Clement's book does not in my view demonstrate a neo-Cynical movement in the Renaissance nor give sufficientattention to the specific adaptations of the Cynic MLR, ioi.i, 2006 243 tradition and the tensions and anxiety to which Cynicism often gives rise, it does pro? vide a series of provocative 'lectures cyniques' of major Renaissance texts. These consist in reading a contrario, giving meaning to the apparently meaningless, as in Le Tiers Livre, or in viewing attacks on credulity as being in defence of true faith, as in Cymbalum mundi. This book will therefore be of interest to all those who are concerned with what is reminiscent of...