Simone Schwarz-Bart, and Myriam Warner-Vieyra. Condé proves to be the most difficult writer for François to pin down within the limits of her thesis because Condé herself eschews labels of any kind, including that of ‘feminist,’ for instance. Interestingly , François mentions an interview she conducted with Condé in which the novelist refuses François’s interpretation of ‘father’ Africa, drawing her attention to uterine and other maternal images in her fiction in relation to the continent. François persists in her argument, nonetheless, and offers a compelling, perhaps courageous, counterargument to the novelist,noting that Africa in Heremakhonon,for example,is associated with phallic images, references to the illegitimate fatherless child, and to efforts to locate one’s identity in relation to male figures. François also insists that Condé seems to contradict herself,if not fully embracing‘feminism,’at least calling attention repeatedly to gender dynamics and male-female power struggles. Ultimately, Condé’s novels show troublesome relationships with the mother, as well as thorny father figures. Writing takes on great significance in Condé’s novels, but is also problematic, for her characters suffer writer’s block or are misunderstood. Chapter 2 focuses on Schwarz-Bart’s works that imagine the Caribbean as a locus of fruitful rediscovery in the wake of the unsatisfactory return to Africa. In Ti Jean L’horizon, the main character searches for the Africa of his grandfather’s stories, but discovers that Africa does not welcome this prodigal son of sorts. François shows how Schwarz-Bart requires her characters to abandon the single-minded search for a fixed identity in the fatherland, and to accept the multiplicity of their roots and identities. François highlights the history of Creole as a literary means of expression, accepted first among male writers, but later also by female writers like Schwarz-Bart. This is another strength of François’s study in that she has a vast knowledge of topics related to her thesis and provides rich background material for the reader. She likewise establishes important connections to other novelists and scholars. In chapter 3, for instance, when she discusses the themes of sisterhood, diary writing, and madness in the novels of Warner-Vieyra, François underscores similar concerns in the writings of Assia Djebar and references Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s seminal study, The Mad Woman in the Attic. François’s book, then, appeals to students new to Francophone studies who will require background information , as well as to seasoned scholars. Rider University (NJ) Mary L. Poteau-Tralie Galand, Perrine, et John Nassichuk, éd. Aspects du lyrisme conjugal à la Renaissance. Genève: Droz, 2011. ISBN 978-2-600-01270-6. Pp. 444. $125. The recrudescence of literature,philosophy,and theory written in Latin constitutes one of the many triumphs of the Renaissance and is crucial to understanding the humanistic revival of the period. Despite the fortunate existence of journals that either 222 FRENCH REVIEW 87.1 Reviews 223 focus on or deal with neo-Latin intellectual endeavors, too little attention is given to this essential part of scholarly output during the early modern era. Attempting to rectify this oversight, Galand and Nassichuk provide an excellent collection of articles dedicated to the topic of marriage as expressed in lyric poetry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The volume contains sixteen essays from colleagues mostly in continental Europe, but also in the United Kingdom and North America. Emphasizing neo-Latin poetry in France, the study also includes lyric offerings from Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. The Italian/Roman influence is fundamental for understanding the lines of descent which begin with poets from Antiquity such as Ovid, Catullus, Martial, and Statius, and extend to Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503), the standardbearer for conjugal love poetry during Renaissance. Indeed, Nassichuk’s first article (he makes two contributions in addition to co-editing) examines Pontano’s De amore conjugali, a text that adapts, “l’élégie érotique ancienne au thème de la vie familiale” (37). Written in part as a lamentation mourning the death of Pontano’s wife Adriana Sassone, De amore conjugali becomes a model for later authors such as Jean Salmon Marcrin...