The Gargantuan Polity: On the Individual and the Community in the French Renaissance by Michael Randall (review)

and history, the elaboration of cycles, and processes of adaptation and renewal (Avant-propos 1). The book is divided into six complementary sections: “Monde chrétien et monde sarrasin,” “Familles et Cycles,” “Regard et points de vue,” “Imaginaire et illusion,” “Fantaisie et humour,” and “Réécritures.” Two-thirds of the articles are devoted to the Guillaume and Lorraine cycles, with particular attention to Aliscans, the Siège de Barbastre, Garin le Lorrain, and Gerbert de Metz. Also prominent is the song of Renaut de Montauban (or the Quatre Fils Aymon) in its medieval and modern versions. One of Guidot’s major contributions to the study of Old French epic is his capacity for revisiting the critical commonplaces that tend to simplify this very complex genre. In the chapter “Aliscans et le regard,” for example, the author begins by acknowledging that the heroes of the chansons de geste are typically associated with action, not passive gazing. He then provides a remarkable analysis of shifting points of view and the poetics of the gaze in this classic warrior narrative , implicitly inviting us to reconsider visual sensibilities in the genre as a whole. Similarly, “Verbe et révolte: la dérision et l’Autre dans le Cycle de Guillaume d’Orange et ailleurs” demonstrates ways in which the epic topos of the “ridiculous Lombard” is problematized in individual works. Comparing the treatment of Lombards with that of Saracens, Guidot’s close reading offers a perceptive and nuanced reflection on the epic Other. The final section of the book (“Réécritures”) is a welcome addition to the growing field of medievalism. Here, Guidot explores the avatars of the chanson de geste from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Particularly useful is the chapter “Formes tardives de l’épopée médiévale: mises en prose, imprimés, livres populaires,” which provides a historical survey of epic adaptations, a concise description of ideological and stylistic innovations, an état présent of scholarship on rewriting, and a rousing call for new avenues of research. The ensuing articles on the mises en prose and the Bibliothèque Bleue attest to the enduring appeal of French epic material and the uncharted territory awaiting a new generation of scholars. University of Georgia Catherine M. Jones RANDALL, MICHAEL. The Gargantuan Polity: On the Individual and the Community in the French Renaissance. Toronto: UP of Toronto, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8020-9814-6. Pp. xii + 374. $75.00. This misleadingly titled volume (Rabelais is the subject of only one chapter) examines in detail how the individual is portrayed in a large number of Renaissance works, many of which literary specialists including myself have never bothered to read. The question posed in the introduction is: Was the modern individual born in the Renaissance? And the title of chapter 1 explains the book’s central focus: “BottomUp vs Top-Down Polities: The Council and the Pope.” The chapter discusses in detail the Councils of Constance (1414–18) and Basel (1431–49) which stressed the subordination of the Pope to the assembly of the faithful. Randall follows the supporters and adversaries of this view through the Pragmatic Sanction, the Fifth Lateran Council and the Concordat of Bologna, which ended the consensus. Chapter 2 describes the representation of the Council of Basel in chants royaux written for the Puy de Rouen, and their emphasis on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, promulgated at Basel. These poems show, according to Randall, “an 158 FRENCH REVIEW 84.1 evolution from an ascending-model of power to a more top-down approach” (82). Chapter 3, on Jean Molinet’s Ressource du petit peuple, also discusses Gerson, Meschinot and Jean Bouchet, while chapter 4 analyzes different portraits of the king in Claude de Seyssel and Guillaume Crétin. Barthélemy Chasseneuz is the subject of chapter 5, which asks again whether the Middle Ages were more individualistic than the Renaissance (148). Chapter 6, “Rabelais and the Ideal Imperfect Polity,” is interested mainly in Grandgousier (in Gargantua), and Gaster (in the Quart Livre). I would agree that Rabelais follows Erasmus in stressing the importance of the prince’s preceptor (179), but I’m not entirely convinced that in his chronicles...