Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Origins: Fable to Fabliau Cele qui se fist foutre sur la Fosse de son Mari
- 2 Outline of a Methodology Part 1: The Logical Contradictories
- 3 Outline of a Methodology Part 2: Episteme and Narreme
- 4 Origins: Fabliau to Fable The Paris B.N. fr. 12603 version of Auberee
- 5 The Fabliau Canon
- 6 Fabliau Structures Part 1: Single Narreme Fabliaux
- 7 Fabliau Structures Part 2: Multiple Narreme Fabliaux
- 8 Fabliau Aesthetic
- Conclusion
- Varia: Appendices A–F
- Fabliau Inventory
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Origins: Fabliau to Fable The Paris B.N. fr. 12603 version of Auberee
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Origins: Fable to Fabliau Cele qui se fist foutre sur la Fosse de son Mari
- 2 Outline of a Methodology Part 1: The Logical Contradictories
- 3 Outline of a Methodology Part 2: Episteme and Narreme
- 4 Origins: Fabliau to Fable The Paris B.N. fr. 12603 version of Auberee
- 5 The Fabliau Canon
- 6 Fabliau Structures Part 1: Single Narreme Fabliaux
- 7 Fabliau Structures Part 2: Multiple Narreme Fabliaux
- 8 Fabliau Aesthetic
- Conclusion
- Varia: Appendices A–F
- Fabliau Inventory
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
As a preliminary move to establish fundamental differences between the two genres, chapter 1 examined the relationship between a traditional fable, The Matron of Ephesus, and what is unquestionably a fabliau, Cele qui se fist foutre. One clear distinction emerges from the fact that while the narreme (see Fig. 1.2, page 24) adequately accounts for the narrative action in the fable, and recurs as part of the structure of the fabliau, only in the fabliau can this narreme be analysed into epistemes of the kind described in Chapter 3. This epistemic structural level articulates an engagement with logical concerns which in the fabliau manifest themselves also at the narremic level. Humour based on logic is arguably the definitive characteristic which distinguishes fabliaux from the majority of fables, but The Matron of Ephesus is unique in offering a fable without epistemic exchanges which is demonstrably associated with a later fabliau where both epistemic and narremic levels are replete with logical interests.
Understanding the relationship between fabliau and fable cannot therefore be refined further through the earlier sort of comparison. No other fables stand in a sufficiently close source relationship to fabliaux to make detailed comparison feasible. More importantly, all the narratives occurring within fable anthologies that are most closely associated with fabliaux exhibit the same epistemic structure as fabliaux, and therefore belong to the fabliau genre, provided, of course, that they satisfy other criteria such as having been written in, or translated into, French verse.
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- Information
- Logic and Humour in the FabliauxAn Essay in Applied Narratology, pp. 77 - 122Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007