Critics readily use the expression "animal allegory" to describe the Roman de Renart, because the Roman contains an indirect meaning insofar as the animal is a mirror of human society. But this literature, in which we have seen the cunning fox of the fable transform into a hypocritical master and competitor of Fortune, is only partially allegorical, because senefiance does not control the entire narrative heritage. We will therefore examine how this literature is never very far from allegory, but is only confused with it in two works from the second half of the 13th century, the Couronnement de Renart and Renart le Nouvel. We will see how the Roman de Renart was able to integrate techniques specific to the allegorical poem, such as metaphorical action (power of vice, conflict) and personifications, while retaining original traits, and how this evolution towards allegory was favored by the nature of its characters, by their degree of generality and exemplarity, and by the increasingly moralizing turn of the later branches. - [Introduction]

Language: French