Narrative Worlds: Essays on the 'Nouvelle' in 15th and 16th Century France (review)

This volume contains eight essays which argue against viewing nouvelle collections as offering more or less unproblematic insights into everyday life. Throughout the book, the assembled Anglo-American specialists seek to establish, albeit from different theoretical perspectives, what can be deduced about fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ideology and narrative practice through the peculiar prism of the nouvelle. The place of women within male power structures forms a predominant part of four of the essays: John O'Brien's subtle reading of the different literal and metaphorical views of the figure of the widow in L'Heptaméron, David LaGuardia's powerfully argued analysis of different versions of the tale of the one-eyed cuckold, Gary Ferguson's interpretation of Heptaméron, 12, in the light of homosociality, and Floyd Gray's questioning of whether the Comptes amoureux attributed to Jeanne Flore cater to the desires of putative male authors and readers. Two of the essays deal more with matters of genre: Emily Thompson's reading of the Nouvelles récréations et joyeux devis emphasizes how the narrative functions in a self-conscious way and Richard L. Regosin's similarly argues that text generates more text in his analysis of the Propos rustiques. Two more essays are more concerned with the imaginative world conjured up by the nouvelle: Tom Conley's intriguing view of the Nouvelles récréations et joyeux devis and contemporary works as representations of notions of national geography and of speed and, finally, Deborah N. Losse's reading of the significant role imagination and fantasy have to play in Le Printemps d'Yver. Taken together, these essays form a refreshing re-evaluation of nouvelle collections, including some lesser-studied works alongside L'Heptaméron. Not all contributors are as careful as others either to explain or indeed avoid obscure theoretical jargon, but this is a minor quibble for what will be an essential point of reference for specialists and useful reading for advanced undergraduates.