Anus as Oculus: Satire and Subversion in Eustorg de Beaulieu's Du cul
In: Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Literatures, 2001
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Zugriff:
This study seeks to rehabilitate Eustorg de Beaulieu's (c. 1495-1552) Du cul (1537) in terms of the poem's satirically subversive nature. I choose the term "rehabilitate" in order to challenge certain aspects of Annette and Edward Tomarken's argument that the poem should be read more in terms of its commentary on the lyric genre of the blason than as a derisive indictment of social norms. I hold that on an implicit level, the poem does support the Tomarkens' contention that Beaulieu "push[es] to its ultimate limits the genre (i.e., the blason) with which he is working" (151). In the opening verses of Du cul, the reader remarks that the poem is indeed aware of itself as a blason, and Beaulieu's work decidedly reflects many of the genre's formal and thematic traits. Yet, apart from these opening verses and occasional allusions to various forms of the blason, the poem's language makes little to no reference to the theory and actual composition of the genre. Arguments about Beaulieu's self-conscious critique of the design and execution of the blason are certainly plausible, but other elements of the poem stand out more forcefully as meriting scholarly inquiry. The Tomarkens' comments are reason enough to revisit the poem, but it should be noted that the depth of Beaulieu's satire, and its relation to contemporary notions of sexuality are such that one could also easily challenge Michael Pegg's dismissal of Du cul as a largely obscene effort to attract attention. From a critical perspective, the topic of scatology offers a richer means of analyzing the poem’s language and purpose. In this essay, “scatology” and the “scatological” will come to mean the prurient references to the excretory and sexual organs and functions of the body. Beaulieu deploys a scatological thématique in order to set forth a derisive vision of 1. the body and sexuality, 2. political structures, and 3. the Catholic Church. Scatology also helps explain the relative absence of the je/poète who normally acts as the mediator between the world and ...
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Anus as Oculus: Satire and Subversion in Eustorg de Beaulieu's Du cul
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Ganim, Russell J |
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Zeitschrift: | Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Literatures, 2001 |
Veröffentlichung: | DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 2001 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
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