The Labé Question: a New Stylometric Analysis

Authors

Ryan Schmid, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

First Advisor

Nora Peterson

Date of this Version

Summer 8-2-2023

Comments

A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts, Major: Modern Languages and Literatures, Under the Supervision of Professor Nora Peterson. Lincoln, Nebraska: July, 2023

Copyright © 2023 Ryan Schmid

Abstract

In 2006, a theory was put forward concerning sixteenth-century poet Louise Labé and her work- both her prose and her poetry. Mireille Huchon, in her 2006 study Louise Labé, une créature de papier, claims that Labé’s work, and indeed a large part of her identity itself, was a fabrication invented by several poets of the 1500s. Huchon describes Labé as a “mystery” and an “enigma,” noting the relatively scant biographical details that we know of Labé’s life (Huchon, pp. 7-11). Perhaps needless to say, this claim stirred up a bit of controversy- many reacted negatively to Huchon’s thesis, not only attacking the evidence that she put forward in support of her theory but also summarizing it as little more than a conspiracy theory. Michel Jourde writes,

C’est l’effet bien connu des argumentations qui s’emploient ainsi à défaire une «illusion» historique ou déjouer un «complot» jusque là inaperçu : leur adresser des objections devient impossible ou vain, puisque tout témoignage contradictoire n'est plus considéré pour sa valeur de témoignage, mais comme une simple participation au complot et à l'illusion. (Jourde, 299).

Some scholars, on the other hand, were more receptive to the idea, even calling it “irrefutable” (Fumaroli), or arguing that “Huchon quite convincingly demonstrates that Labé’s works amount to a literary hoax perpetrated by a group of male poets based in Lyon” (Bourbon).

Why, after more than 17 years, has Huchon’s thesis persisted? Why has this problem created so much controversy, with critics both praising and lambasting Huchon? Why has it been difficult to put a definitive end to the question of the identity of Louise Labé or the authorship of her works? This paper seeks to add to the discussion around Labé by analyzing the poetry of Labé and other sixteenth century authors discussed in Huchon’s texts using computational methods, specifically using stylometry, the measuring of the style of individual authors’ styles with programming.

Advisor: Nora Peterson