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Gerard P. Sharpling, The Role of the Image in the Prose Writing of
Erasmus, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre and Montaigne (Lewiston
and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003), 244 pp. ISBN 0773468625
Gerard Sharpling’s study of imagery unites four authors that span the length
of the sixteenth century. These texts come together, Sharpling argues, because
they demonstrate the interplay between visual imagery, human experience and
the development of prose writing. Sharpling is particularly concerned with the
way in which visual images in these works betray the fragmentary nature of
existence, which in turn necessitates an intuitive reader response, which he
contends would have been underpinned by a Christocentric approach. This
book is therefore a return to the study of humanist evangelism as an approach
to French Renaissance literature, which in previous decades dominated
scholarship on writers such as Rabelais and Montaigne.
Although Sharpling has selected authors who reflect on the processes
of reading and writing, these texts raise different issues because of their wide
chronological span and the different scope for Christocentric readings they
present. The treatment of four major authors poses difficulties because of the
vast amount of criticism produced yearly on writers such as Montaigne and
Rabelais. Sharpling’s analysis sometimes suffers because of reference to
sources which have become outdated in the light of more recent criticism
produced on his chosen authors. His treatment of Marguerite de Navarre is a
case in point, as it does not take account of the significant developments in
criticism on this author within the last ten years.
These reservations notwithstanding, Sharpling’s study successfully
mediates between rhetoric and the practice of writing and reading prose in
Renaissance France. This mediation is necessary given the unstable nature of
prose writing in this period and its unsystematic use of visual imagery. For
Sharpling, the patchwork of visual imagery in these works and the situation of
truth beyond the literary text is shaped by the way in which biblical
commentators moved away from the unequivocal truths of Catholic dogma
towards responses to the scriptures which challenged individual readers to
produce meaning. This, Sharpling argues, can be used as a paradigm for
reading secular as well as sacred texts of the period. Furthermore, a growing
awareness of this new fluidity in the interpretations of biblical texts inspired
secular writing which was itself less inclined to provide truth than to
encourage the reader to create their own response.
Sharpling begins by examining the role of rhetoric in Renaissance texts,
particularly developing those figures and tropes which structure and inform
his analysis. The classical inception and Renaissance receptions of ekphrasis,
imago, metaphora, parabolae and imitatio all feature here, and the treatment of
enargeia is particularly informative, here and throughout the work. The idea of
the graphic text in the Renaissance is also explored from the Heptaméron’s
substitution of text for image in the prologue to the work to the very different
use of images in the spatial configuration of the page in Geofroy Tory’s
Champ Fleury (1529).
Evangelical humanism is central to this study and Sharpling’s second
chapter argues that features of the Renaissance reading and writing processes
originated in the responses to scripture of Origen, Augustine and Erasmus.
Augustine’s conception of human knowledge of the scriptures as essentially
fragmented and incomplete, for example, is said to inform the elusive nature
of truth in the chosen authors. Erasmus’s belief that perception can only be
partial is used by Sharpling as an interpretive paradigm with which to explore
Rabelais’s prologues, establishing the link between biblical scholarship and the
reading of secular texts.
Chapter Three outlines the way in which visual imagery entices the
reader into fruitlessly searching for unequivocal truths in Erasmus’s In Praise of
Folly (1517). This is achieved through a skilful exposition of the subdivisions
of enargeia and their manifestations in Erasmus’s text. The idea that truth lies
beyond both the text and the reader is developed in the next chapter, which
takes on the daunting task of analysing the use of images in Rabelais’ Quart
Livre (1552). Presenting an original interpretation of this area is especially
challenging because of the extensive amount of existing criticism, by Michel
Jeanneret and others, on the difficulties of establishing meaning in Rabelais.
Sharpling’s contention that images posit rather than resolve the question of
meaning – provoking the reader to turn away from the inconsistencies of
human consciousness and towards faith – relies heavily on both Jeanneret and
Screech, somewhat limiting the impact of his own argument.
Sharpling’s discussion of the interplay between visual and spiritual
imagery in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron (1558) is more convincing.
This is a particularly impressive achievement given the fact that the Heptaméron
has been studied almost to exhaustion. Sharpling’s analysis of enargeia brings to
life the importance of graphic writing in a work which is frequently dismissed
as being devoid of visual imagery. The final chapter is a reading of Montaigne
as a figure who rejects doctrinal dogma in favour of a faith that is expressed
more tentatively. Sharpling’s analysis of Montaigne’s imagery is thoughtprovoking and his exploration of the idea of balance within the author’s
constantly shifting self-definition is insightful. However, the continual relation
of these arguments to Montaigne’s own religious beliefs does seem to be
rather reductive.
Overall, the book is a well-constructed study of the reflexivity of the
writing and reading processes in the Renaissance. Although the prominence of
Evangelical humanism in Sharpling’s analysis will not meet with approval
from all quarters, the exposition of rhetorical terms and demonstration of
how they function is in itself worth reading and would serve as an excellent
introduction for students of rhetoric. Sharpling’s own prose is well written
and easy to read, making this an enjoyable book.
Dr Pollie Bromilow
University of Liverpool