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Contribution to Book
A Voice Restored: Louise Labé's Impersonation of Sappho
English
  • Phyllis Brown, Santa Clara University
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1-1-1999
Publisher
Fairleigh Dickinson UP (AUP)
Abstract

Ever since the publication of her Œuvres in 1555, Louise Labé's name and poetic voice have been closely linked with the name, voice, and identity of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. Labé's contemporaries called her the "Sappho Lyonnaise," and Labé names and alludes to Sappho at several points in her writings. For example, in Labé's first elegy the persona specifies that Apollo has given her the lyre which was accustomed to sing about lesbian love and which would at the same time cry about hers.

Chapter of
The Author as Character: Representing Historical Writers in Western Literature
Comments
Reprinted by permission of the author and Associated University Presses.
Citation Information
Brown, Phyllis. "A Voice Restored: Louise Labé's Impersonation of Sappho." The Author as Character: Representing Historical Writers in Western Literature. Ed. Paul Franssen and A. J. Hoenselaars. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1999. 80-92.