ABSTRACT
Labe is a prime example of this troubling female figure. This chapter first discusses the backdrop for literary society in Lyon and the anxieties that women such as Labe produced in it, even while being considered central to it. Moving beyond the focus on women writing for female communities, it is important to recall that upon publication, women's works were offered up to an integrated literary society of men and women, setting their authors on the threshold of fame or infamy. The chapter examines how Labe's writing interacts intertextually with that of Pontus de Tyard (1521-1605), her friend and a staunch Neoplatonist. On one side, we find a traditional defense of women that represents one facet of the same old argument: woman as Neoplatonic ideal vs. whorish coquette; on the other, we have a call to broaden the scope of the querelle to consider the nature and behavior of both men and women.
