The Tre Coc Tale (Vietnam) and Reynard the Fox (France): Some notes on the method of writing

Abstract

The Tre Coc Tale of Vietnam (The Nom Tre Coc Tale) and Reynard the Fox of France (French: Roman de Renard, English: Reynard the Fox) are the two compositions created in the post-medieval period in each literature. When they are placed in a comparative relationship, it is easy to see that these two literary cases have a lot of similarities. Firstly, both the Tre Coc Tale and Reynard the Fox are all narrative poems circulated in the folksy context. At the same time, their anonymous authors created stories about the animal society. Therefore, we have posed the research question that this similarity is due to a chance or it is a rule of a literary age. The historical typology comparison school has provided us with some useful suggestions for answering the research question raised. The method of writing is the issue which we focus on discussing when we compare the Tre Coc Tale and Reynard the Fox. This is a theoretical concept created by Soviet literary researchers. From a historical perspective, the concept of the method of writing helps us to identify the phenomenon of stories about the animal society in the Tre Coc Tale and Reynard the Fox as the writing style of an age and a certain group of authors. Those are the two compositions produced in the post-medieval period of the people discontented with the feudal government. In order to come to the conclusions about the writing methods of the Tre Coc Tale and Reynard the Fox, our article discusses the three main issues: the inheritance of traditional literary images, the animal society building, and the poetic storytelling method.