FANTASME ET FACÉTIE: DU BELLAY, DE L’OLIVE (149) AUX DIVERS JEUX RUSTIQUES (1558)
FANTASY AND JOKE: FROM BELLAY, FROM THE OLIVE (149) TO VARIOUS RUSTIC GAMES (1558)

Summary/Abstract: Joachim Du Bellay, founding member of the Pléiade, the « brigade » of poets who sought to renew the vernacular idiom through imitation of classical authors, fashioned a style and signature that called his talents in question. Often stating that he was « less than nothing, » he exalted himself in affected modesty. The style of denial, expressed in the frequent usage of Je ne [I do not}, betrays a phantasm of glory couched in facetiousness. Hence the « self » (le moi) is defined by its alterity. Contradiction and contrariety drive the poetic creation, the very subject and object of an oeuvre of remarkably modern temper.

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