La tradition comique et son renouveau dans les historiettes de Jacques le fataliste et son maître

Jane Rush: The Comic Tradition and its Renewal in the stories of Jacques le fataliste. The aim of this study is to examine the importance of the mediæval tradition as it appears in the stories contained in Jacques le fataliste et son maître and to study it in the context of a narrative which is perpetually undermining itself, as can be seen in the dominant image of the great scroll. Several examples are given of the stereotyped characters who appear in the stories contained in the work, as in their mediæval predecessors, and particularly of the theme of sexual transgression which undermines the smooth functioning of social institutions. The way in which the content of the stories subverts by means of parody is also reflected in the dual nature of the characters and in the narrative form. We see the importance of the oral style of narration, which enables Diderot to subvert literary conventions. The author's originality consists in using the mediæval story to produce a modern work using a modern form of the comic which questions the very nature of the written text and its convention.