Kristen Brown and Dr. Robert J. Hudson, French & Italian
I would like to begin by thanking the Office of Research & Creative Activities for the incredible opportunity I had to pursue in-‐depth research on a topic that I found exciting and pertinent to my studies at BYU. This grant gave me the opportunity to work closely with a faculty mentor, and to expand my academic experience during my last year as an undergraduate. Thanks to the funding, I was able to complete my honors thesis, which now is available for the public to view in the Harold B. Lee Library (call number XX(5369221.1).
As manifest by the change in title above, the research process for me was one of continual growth and revision. I learned quickly that my initial outline and direction would evolve many times over before the finished paper. My faculty mentor, Dr. Hudson, proved indispensible with all of the insights and direction he brought to my work.
My paper discusses the topographical and geographical synthesis of Lyon as it surfaces in predominant texts during the mid-‐sixteenth century. I used two points of focus in my research: (1) How Lyon provided a refuge for burgeoning women authors and also a means for them to be published during a time that generally did not favor female authorship, and (2) how different features of Lyon are prominent in poetry during this time. My thesis discusses Lyonnais poets Maurice Scève, Pernette du Guillet and Louise Labé, including an analysis of poems by each author. These analyses include specific editions of these works which provide important prefaces and introductions that provide critical insights into the authors and their motives for publication.
The foremost challenge to my research was narrowing my topic and cutting my results in order to keep my thesis manageable and clear. There were many authors in Lyon during the sixteenth century that I wished to study and evaluate in my research1, but I soon understood that examining one hundred years’ worth of writers would take much more time and prove much more complex than it needed to be. In order to remedy this, I chose instead to focus my study more on the latter half of the century, and in those 50 years, I selected three of the most pertinent authors, as mentioned above.
The results of my research affirmed that there was a strong relationship between the geography of Lyon and the works of its literary school. I examined many poems from the selected authors and specifically explored aspects of their rhyme structure, versification, and meter for references to Lyon. In the conclusion to my thesis I state that Lyon did indeed prove to promote an open dialogue between male authors and their female counterparts, as is clear from an exploration of their writings. This city provided unrivaled freedom for female publications during the time compared to anywhere else in Europe. Though my thesis was not a comprehensive study of female authorship in sixteenth century France, I am pleased with the results of my research and I hope that others can use my thesis for further study on the topic.