La manipulation littéraire de la femme féerique dans Les Prophesies de Merlin

Abstract

Les Prophesies de Merlin is a propitious text for an inquiry of the marvellous in the late Middle Ages, and highlights, beyond an aesthetic effect, the essence of romance writing that had developed in the course of this transitory period, thus paving the way for works of Rabelais and Cerventes. This literary work from the 14th century provides a degenerated depiction of the female characters who, in earlier Arthurian literature, are represented as the most beautiful and powerful fairies, and perverts the patterns from earlier romance texts, so as to produce a comical perspective of an upside-down world, which borders on the fabliau genre.