Thesis--Bonn. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-218).

Texte remanié de: Th. de doct.--Londres--Université de Londres, 1965. / Bibliogr. p.257-273. Index.

M.A. / La Fontaine is universally known for his revival of the classic Latin, Indian and Greek fables. He originally translated and reworked the fables from Latin prose to French poetry (1668). The target audience was the courtiers of Louis XIV’s court, the King and the literary society of the day. Despite the charm of the animal characters, the lively illustrations and the obvious didactic value of his fables, he did not have a juvenile audience in mind. These fables were intended to make social and political comment, to criticize, to warn and to transmit his own brand of humour, philosophy and rhetoric. The modern day translator is faced with a multitude of problems when attempting to translate these 17th century poems. Some of the difficulties stem from historical and moral conventions to which La Fontaine adhered. The idiosyncratic intervention of the poet in his fables, is another issue that needs to be reflected upon. The very first translation into English, in 1729, was done in prose format, destined for the children’s market. This pattern was followed wherever the fables were translated: the target audience of the original fables changed within a few decades from an elite, adult circle to a juvenile audience. Since the late 19th century, when Afrikaans began emerging as a formal language, these fables were also translated as prose. The first poetry collection, by E.P. du Plessis, appeared in 1970. The 16 poetry translations beg for more of the same. The need for children’s poetry in Afrikaans will thus be catered for. Moreover, La Fontaine’s poems with their universal appeal and well-known characters, should become an integral part of prescribed school literature. The format and content of the fabled poem is the ideal vehicle for the creation of satire. But for satire to succeed, the target reader should know the original text. La Fontaine’s fables have the possibility to extend the genre of satire in prose, poetry and drama in South Africa. An appeal is thus made to translators and poets to translate more of La Fontaine’s poetry into Afrikaans. An appeal is also directed at the Education Departments to reconsider the fable, with La Fontaine’s version in mind, as compulsory literary study. The ancient mythology, from which Aesop and La Fontaine richly drew inspiration, is another genre that should be better known by the general public. The school syllabi would have to be revised in order to accommodate these two genres, which would not only enrich the literature background of the learners, but would also serve to enhance their moral education in a non-judgmental way: ideally suited for the multi-cultural classroom. The study is concluded with a selection of translations, using different translating styles to suit different target audiences.

Inaug.-diss.--Heidelberg. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 1-2.

Inaug.-diss.--Heidelberg. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 1-2.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

The diploma work is focused on analysis of illustrations in the Czech editions of fables of the French writer Jean de La Fontaine. The first part is based on theoretical approach, dealing with the definition of the fable as well as with the classicist writer{\crq}s life, his literary work, his contribution to the literature of the 17th century and events that influenced them fundamentally. The diploma work makes the reader acquainted with the acceptation of Fables by the public and what La Fontaine intended to tell them by his literary work. Because the Fables are the kind of genre where the illustration is one of the basic elements, the diploma work presents also a brief history of illustration in the literary work, especially in the Fables and concentrates on how the illustrations correspond to writer´s intention. This work deals also with the most successful French Fables illustrators. The practical part of this work consists in analysis of all the Czech editions, their division in illustrated and non illustrated editions and the detailed description of chosen illustrated titles and their common features and differences. The last part evaluates the originality of these editions and the results of the analysis.

Au seuil de ses Fables, La Fontaine affirme qu’il « chante les héros dont Ésope est le Père ». Souvent prise pour argent comptant, cette généalogie affichée a conduit la critique à envisager la composition des Fables dans le cadre d’un face-à-face schématique entre le « Père » supposé du genre et son Fils incarné dans la France du Grand Siècle. Cette thèse se propose de reprendre sur nouveaux frais la question des sources de l’inspiration « ésopique » de La Fontaine : « chante[r] les héros dont Ésope est le père », qu’est-ce à dire exactement ? À quelle figure auctoriale et à quels ouvrages le nom d’Ésope pouvait-il être associé dans l’esprit d’un poète du XVIIe siècle ? Au travers de quels filtres la « matière ésopique » était-elle passée avant que La Fontaine ne se l’approprie ? Après un examen approfondi de l’origine et de la nature du corpus des fables dites d’Ésope et de la biographie fictive du fabuliste grec (Vie d’Ésope), l’enquête se porte sur la réception et la transmission de ces textes aux XVe, XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Elle révèle que la filiation apparemment directe, évidente et sans médiation entre l’inventeur légendaire de l’apologue et son héritier majeur demande une révision de nos préjugés critiques, à la lumière de l’archéologie d’un modèle, d’un genre et d’une tradition qui s’avèrent d’une complexité et d’une diversité que La Fontaine lui-même ne soupçonnait peut-être pas, mais qui promet à l’analyste moderne la révélation d’un mode d’invention et de réception du genre fable beaucoup plus ouvert, fluide, voire confus, que ne le laisserait supposer l’annotation des éditions du fabuliste français. / At the beginning of his Fables, La Fontaine claims that he « sings the heroes whose father is Æsop ». Because it was often accepted at face value, this self-styled genealogy led the critics to consider the composition of the Fables as a « tête-à-tête » between the so-called « father » of the genre and his spiritual son. In this dissertation, I try to renew the study of the Æsopic sources of La Fontaine. What does « singing the heroes whose father is Æsop » really mean ? Which books could be related to the name of Æsop in the mind of a 17th-century French poet ? After a carefull examination of the origin and nature of the so-called Æsop’s fables as well as the fictionnal biography of the Greek fabulist, the present investigation analyses the reception and the transmission of both Æsop’s life and fables in Early Modernity (15th, 16th and 17th centuries). In the light of this archeological research, the belief in an obvious and direct relationship without any mediation between the legendary inventor of the fable and his most gifted heir turns out to be completely deceptive. The Æsopic tradition proves to be far more various and complex than one might think after reading the comments and footnotes of the critical editions of La Fontaine’s Fables choisies mises en vers.

<p>In my thesis, “Commandeering Aesop’s Bamboo Canon: A 19th Century Confederacy of Creole Fugitive Fables,” I ask and answer the ‘Who? What? Where? When? Why?” of Creole Literature using the 19th century production of Aesopian fables as clues to resolve a set of linguistic, historical, literary, and geographical enigmas pertaining the ‘birth-place(s)’ of Creolophone Literatures in the Caribbean Sea, North and South America, as well as the Indian Ocean. Focusing on the fables in Martinique (1846), Reunion Island (1826), and Mauritius (1822), my thesis should read be as an attempt capture the links between these islands through the creation of a particular archive defined as a cartulary-chronicle, a diplomatic codex, or simply a map in which I chart and trace the flight of the founding documents relating to the lives of the individual authors, editors, and printers in order to illustrate the articulation of a formal and informal confederation that enabled the global and local institutional promotion of Creole Literature. While I integrate various genres and multi-polar networks between the authors of this 19th century canon comprised of sacred and secular texts such as proclamations, catechisms, and proverbs, the principle literary genre charted in my thesis are collections of fables inspired by French 17th century French Classical fabulist, Jean de la Fontaine. Often described as the ‘matrix’ of Creolophone Literature, these blues and fables constitute the base of the canon, and are usually described as either ‘translated,’ ‘adapted,’ and even ‘cross-dressed’ into Creole in all of the French Creolophone spaces. My documentation of their transnational sprouting offers proof of an opaque canonical formation of Creole popular literature. By constituting this archive, I emphasize the fact that despite 200 years of critical reception and major developments and discoveries on behalf of Creole language pedagogues, literary scholars, linguists, historians, librarians, archivist, and museum curators, up until now not only have none have curated this literature as a formal canon. I also offer new empirical evidence in order to try and solve the enigma of “How?” the fables materially circulated between the islands, and seek to come to terms with the anonymous nature of the texts, some of which were published under pseudonyms. I argue that part of the confusion on the part of scholars has been the result of being willfully taken by surprise or defrauded by the authors, or ‘bamboozled’ as I put it. The major paradigmatic shift in my thesis is that while I acknowledge La Fontaine as the base of this literary canon, I ultimately bypass him to trace the ancient literary genealogy of fables to the infamous Aesop the Phrygian, whose biography – the first of a slave in the history of the world – and subsequent use of fables reflects a ‘hidden transcript’ of ‘masked political critique’ between ‘master and slave classes’ in the 4th Century B.C.E. Greece.</p><p>This archive draws on, connects and critiques the methodologies of several disciplinary fields. I use post-colonial literary studies to map the literary genealogies Aesop; use a comparative historical approach to the abolitions of slavery in both the 19th century Caribbean and the Indian Ocean; and chart the early appearance of folk music in early colonial societies through Musicology and Performance Studies. Through the use of Sociolinguistics and theories of language revival, ecology, and change, I develop an approach of ‘reflexive Creolistics’ that I ultimately hope will offer new educational opportunities to Creole speakers. While it is my desire that this archive serves linguists, book collectors, and historians for further scientific inquiry into the innate international nature of Creole language, I also hope that this innovative material defense and illustration of Creole Literature will transform the consciousness of Creolophones (native and non-native) who too remain ‘bamboozled’ by the archive. My goal is to erase the ‘unthinkability’ of the existence of this ancient maritime creole literary canon from the collective cultural imaginary of readers around the globe.</p> / Dissertation