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Article: 'Un bon esmoucheteur par mousches jamais emouche ne sera': Panurge as trickster. (Rabelais)
- Article from:
- The Romanic Review
- Article date:
- November 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Columbia University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The riddle of Panurge has occupied the attention of scholars for several generations. Who is this character, what are his parallels in literary history, and what is his role in Rabelais's text? To paraphrase Edwin Duval, Panurge has been associated with Mercury, Ulysses, Tyl Eulenspiegel, the pranksters of folk myth, and the Devil himself.(1) Each of these associations is correct, since Panurge is an intrinsically multiple character, who undergoes radical changes in the various books. I would like to offer my own conception of this intriguing character in relation to the trickster figures of the nouvelle literature, in order to demonstrate that certain aspects of ...