Le Moyen Age
De Boeck Université
I.S.B.N.2-8041-4205-1
226 pages
p. 79 à 111
doi: en cours
Veille sur la revue
Veille sur l'auteur
De Boeck Université
I.S.B.N.2-8041-4205-1
226 pages
p. 79 à 111
doi: en cours
Veille sur la revue
Veille sur l'auteur
Vous consultez
Tome CIX 2003/1
Le renard dans le cubiculum taxi: les avatars d’un exemplum et le symbolisme du blaireau
Bohdana Librová
B. LIBROVÁ, The fox in the cubiculum taxi: modifications of an exemplum and the
symbolism of the badger.
The present paper is intended as a contribution to the analysis of the symbolical values of the badger in medieval literature. It examines the modifications that an animal exemplum goes through in various genres. The badger is not conspicuous in literature, yet its significance lies in its relationship with divine symbolism, especially in the story of the lair taken over by the devil-fox. The drama, which fits zoological facts, is treated differently in different genres. Encyclopedias refer to specific zoological facts. Preachers turn it into an exemplum, though innovative features are not necessarily excluded. In a French school book and in Petite Philosophie the badger’s appearance boils down to a few brief phrases, to images that seem to go back to empirical observation. Another aspect of the same reality appears through the patterns formed by characters in Roman de Renart. The confusion with the marmot that derived from a misreading of Pliny and from paronymic habits shows how easily the symbolic significance attached to an animal can be shifted to another. The indeterminacy of the badger’s senefiances is confirmed by the negative connotations attached to it outside this exemplum, which in turn shed light on other aspects typical of the way it was perceived through history.Keywords : Imaginary representations of animals, badger, exemplum, encyclopedia, literary echoes of zoological facts.
The present paper is intended as a contribution to the analysis of the symbolical values of the badger in medieval literature. It examines the modifications that an animal exemplum goes through in various genres. The badger is not conspicuous in literature, yet its significance lies in its relationship with divine symbolism, especially in the story of the lair taken over by the devil-fox. The drama, which fits zoological facts, is treated differently in different genres. Encyclopedias refer to specific zoological facts. Preachers turn it into an exemplum, though innovative features are not necessarily excluded. In a French school book and in Petite Philosophie the badger’s appearance boils down to a few brief phrases, to images that seem to go back to empirical observation. Another aspect of the same reality appears through the patterns formed by characters in Roman de Renart. The confusion with the marmot that derived from a misreading of Pliny and from paronymic habits shows how easily the symbolic significance attached to an animal can be shifted to another. The indeterminacy of the badger’s senefiances is confirmed by the negative connotations attached to it outside this exemplum, which in turn shed light on other aspects typical of the way it was perceived through history.Keywords : Imaginary representations of animals, badger, exemplum, encyclopedia, literary echoes of zoological facts.
• 1. Les encyclopédies
• 2. L’épisode devient exemplum homilétique
• 3. Les transformations textuelles liées aux caractéristiques
des genres
• 4. Pour un symbolisme du blaireau
• 5. Le cas Grimbert : un retournement de la scène
• 6. Là où la scène reste intacte
• 7. Conclusion
© Cairn 2007
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