French Literature Reviews - 2026
Anne Boutet, Conteurs de la Renaissance et romanciers comiques. Le genre des nouvelles au XVIe siècle
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Anne Boutet
Conteurs de la Renaissance et romanciers comiques. Le genre des nouvelles au XVIe siècle
Paris, Classiques Garnier, coll. "Études et essais sur la Renaissance", 2024
In the absence of contemporary *arts poétiques*, literary critics struggle to define the genre of Renaissance short stories (*nouvelles*). Yet comic novelists, through their hands-on reading of 16th-century storytellers, offer coherent and useful defining criteria built upon a spectacle of humours.
Anne Boutet examines how sixteenth-century comic novelists engaged in close, practical readings of contemporary storytellers to establish coherent definitions for the genre of the *nouvelle*. In an era lacking formal *arts poétiques* dedicated to short prose, these novelists developed functional critical criteria rooted in the representation of humours. By analyzing their works, the study illuminates how early modern writers conceptualized comic narrative and narrative structure without the aid of codified prescriptive rules from contemporary theorists.
This volume will interest scholars of Renaissance literature, early modern narrative forms, and the history of literary criticism. It contributes to broader discussions on genre formation in sixteenth-century France by shifting the focus from abstract poetics to the empirical practices of writers themselves. Researchers studying the evolution of comic prose and the reception of Renaissance storytelling traditions will find valuable perspectives on how early modern literature theorized its own practices through creation and imitation.
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