The kiss poems created by the Dutch poet Johannes Secundus became important in French Renaissance love poetry, their field of meaning ranging from a simple fascination with erotica to a more comprehensive exploration of a cosmic world vision. Confusing the Platonic furors, French poets tended to identify amorous madness with poetic production. The text explores this new notion of poetry through textual analyses of kiss poems, ranging from those of Secundus through Ronsard and other Pléiade poets, as well as individuals such as Scève, Labé and D'Aubigné. Interested in exploring the bases of poetic thought, the text links the kiss to a more general theory of poetics, wherein love symbolizes poetic production. If the kiss thus becomes a metaphor for the creative act, this is due to poetry's essentially selfreflexive nature: images such as the kiss allow to explore its own essence.

Autorentext

The Author: Ruth Gooley is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her B.A. in English from Loyola-Marymount University and her Ph.D. in French from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has presented numerous papers and chaired sessions at local, national and international conferences. She has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and Towson State University. Dr. Gooley was also teacher in the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa.

Zusammenfassung
"(This book is) a solid and original piece of work with a keen critical insight which defines the use of the kiss as a literary theme by Ronsard and the Pléiade and its evolution since Secundus' "Basia", A very useful book for the specialist and/or the student of Pléiade poetry esthetics." (Marc Bensimon, University of California, Los Angeles)