The problem with the Roman de Renart is not only that it tells us the adventures of an outlaw, because, after all, Zorro, Robin Hood, even the Daltons are also outlaws, it is that the crimes committed by Renart are not aimed at taking from the rich to give to the poor and are often committed with such cruelty, such aggressive premeditation that they can hardly be justified. That this violence had a comic impact is obvious, but it is clear that our comic methods have changed since the Middle Ages and that we no longer feel the vis comica of these beatings, castrations and other mutilations. Some scenes have become so shocking that they can only be studied by leaving aside our modern sensibility (which we have the right to consider as sentimentality): they are symptomatic of the gap that separates us today from the medieval readers of the Roman de Renart. Do we really want our children to read such stories? And yet modern adaptations of Renart are always aimed at the youngest. While the adventures of Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table can be declined in various forms, in albums for young people and in novels for adults, and those of Tristan are rather intended for adolescents, Renart, himself, is confined to the youth section of bookstores. - [Author]

Language: French