Le renard dans le cubiculum taxi: les avatars d'un exemplum et le symbolisme du blaireau
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 throu...
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Français |
| Publicat: |
2003
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumari: | 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. |
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