The Letter Correspondence during the Renaissance Period: the Epistolary Genre Development

Abstract

The family letter in France, which had reached its heyday during the Renaissance period, underwent a change towards the worldly motivated, as the trendy taste of saloons and their luxurious style dictated at the end of the sixteenth century. As a good sample of the former kind we will discuss those written by Hélisenne de Crenne and Madelaine des Roches’s letters as representative of the latter kind. These two types of epistolary genre, though they apparently differ in the author’s purpose, they reveal, however, some common traits, as they both were written by Humanistic women who highlight in them the feelings and concerns of Renaissance women.
Les Épistres familières et invectives de ma dame Hélisenne, composées par icelle dame de Crenne published in 1539 are the first known example of personal correspondence ever published in French. This letter collection is actually a narrative sequel to her novel Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procèdent d’amours (1538). Catherine and Madelaine des Roches’s Les Missives of 1586 are innovative to the extent that it is the first time an author publishes her own personal correspondence.
Our analysis of both epistolary collections will focus on two main aspects: the classic and modern influence of the epistolary genre in the Renaissance and the various epistolary strategies that reveal an interactive character. Therefore, we will tackle all those pragmatic elements as used by the authors in the letters concerned whereby they provide a self-image as sender and receiver(s) of the letters.