La « peur épique ». Le sentiment de peur en tant qu’objet littéraire dans la chanson de geste française
Bernard Ribémont
A literary system founded on the concentration and overestimation of values, such
as the Chanson de Geste, can only be constructed with a set of contrasts. Therefore
courage cannot really exist without fear: fear among other people, among those who
must be identified as enemies to be destroyed or converted, fear among those who
do not belong to the social group which almost exclusively owns courage. But also
fear among the heroes themselves, who are also human beings, also creatures of God,
of a God who observes them and whom they must fear. This hero’s fear, beyond its
religious and moral attributes, also has a number of literary functions; it can even
become an “epic subject” as soon as it enters the system of epic writing, as soon as it
becomes a motivational matrix. This is the literary “subject” to be studied here.Keywords :
fear, chanson de geste, epic hero, epic women, typology of epic fear.
• 1. Les mots pour le dire…
• 2. Les manifestations de peur
• 3. Qui a peur ?
— a. Chrétien/sarrasin
— b. Masculin/féminin
— c. Chevalier/non-chevalier
— d. Individu/collectivité
• 4. De quoi a-t-on peur ?
— a. Peur sociétale
— b. Peur météorologique
— c. Peur de l’altérité
— e. Peur métaphysique
• 5. La peur dans l’écriture
— a. Fonctions didactiques
— b. Fonctions littéraires