A research network on the notion of obscenity in Renaissance France

在文艺复兴时期，什么构成淫秽是一个无休止的挑衅性辩论话题，就像今天一样。人们经常简单地认为，文艺复兴时期的法国文化是一种拉贝莱式的放荡，在17世纪期间，突然出现了反对淫秽的官方反应，最明显的开始是1623年对塞奥菲尔·德·维奥的审判，他写了一首关于鸡奸的臭名昭著的十四行诗。然而，法国文艺复兴时期淫秽的前史远比这幅画所允许的复杂得多。从法律到文学，从宗教到医学，各行各业的作家和艺术家一直在担心他们的作品和他们的同代人的作品是否被接受。例如，医生是否有权用法语发表一篇关于妇科的文章，这样不仅非专科医生可以阅读，甚至女性也可以阅读？在激怒观众之前，喜剧演员的下流笑话能开到什么程度？面对超越自己极限的古代或意大利语作品，译者应该怎么做？为什么拉丁文对写给男孩的淫秽古诗的评论中会有关于作者性行为的自传性段落？从创作作品中，我们可以从文艺复兴时期的淫秽观念中学到什么？这些作品将梅毒描绘成一个带着凯旋游行队伍后方的女人，或者把女性生殖器描绘成一只在乡村漫步的野兽？我们该如何看待利用散布来诋毁对手的宗教宣传？我们的网络汇集了来自英国、美国、法国、荷兰和瑞士的20多名法国文艺复兴研究专家，为这些有趣的问题提供答案。该网络将成为该领域富有成效和充满活力的新研究人员开展国际和跨学科合作的催化剂。超过一半的网络成员是早期职业研究人员，他们将得到组成我们团队其余部分的经验丰富和著名的研究人员的补充和支持。

What constituted obscenity was an endlessly provocative topic of debate in the Renaissance, as it is today. It is often simplistically assumed that the culture of Renaissance France was one of 'Rabelaisian' debauchery, abruptly followed by an official reaction against obscenity in the course of the seventeenth century, beginning most obviously in 1623 with the trial of Théophile de Viau, who had penned an infamous sonnet on sodomy. However, the pre-history of obscenity in Renaissance France is far more complex than this picture allows. Writers and artists in the most diverse fields, from law to literature and from religion to medicine, are constantly worrying about the acceptability or otherwise of both their work and that of their contemporaries. For instance, does a doctor have the right to publish a text on gynaecology in French, which can then be read not only by non-specialists, but even by women? How far can a comedian go in his dirty jokes before outraging his audience? What should a translator do when faced with an ancient or Italian work which oversteps his/her limits? And why is it that learned Latin commentaries to obscene ancient poetry addressed to boys contain autobiographical passages about their authors' sexual rites of passage? What can we learn about Renaissance notions of obscenity from creative works which portray syphilis as a woman bringing up the rear of a triumphal procession or which depict the female genitalia as a wild animal roaming the countryside? What are we to make of religious propaganda which uses scatology to sully its opponents?Our network brings together a team of over twenty specialists in French Renaissance studies from the UK, USA, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland to provide responses to these intriguing questions. The network will serve as a catalyst for the international and interdisciplinary collaboration of productive and dynamic new researchers in the field. Over half of the network members are early career researchers, who will be complemented and supported by the experienced and eminent researchers who constitute the rest of our team.