This study participates in a tendency of Rabelaisian criticism to consider the Pantagruelian text as a weaving of borrowed forms which rcho surrounding discourses. On thrse grounds, we argue that epideictic rloquence, which comprises praise and blame, forms up a network of recognisable passages. This corpus, which, frora the Gargantua to the Quart Livre, brings together pieces eclectic as much in claim as in structure, is tackled from a generic perspective and analysed in light of their common rhetorical components: dispositio, elocutio and inventio. In accordance with the aesthetic of imitation, which informs the making of texts in the Renaissance, Rabelais recasts models available from his predecessors. However, these textual reshufflings, whether it be a matter of early XVIth Century literary compositions or rehabilitated classical works, is effected through parody. But while the re-evaluation through laughter, in the cases of the Gargantua and the Pantagruel, concerns the occasional poetry of the rhetoriqueurs, parody is brought about within the genre itself in the Tiers and Quart Livres, which comprise paradoxical encomia only. Our interest here is in the modes of parody and the conditions for the provoking of laughter in which can be seen the will to reinvigorate a genre, which had by then become strictly codified. From the first two books to the last a certain way of thinking is being established. With conceptual space allowing such great breadth, the paradoxical encomium introduces into epideictic rhetoric contradiction and equivocation, thereby freeing that genre from its formal constraints. This propensity to paradox is significant for the rhetoric of praise and the textual representation of man. And yet, it is through the parody of the epideictic genre and the often grotesque figures it engenders, that Rabelais participates in the oratory genre, - an anthropology indeed, and, as such, a tool to conceive of man - which conveys the highest conception of the human.

The works of Edwin M. Duval, especially The Design of Rabelais's "Pantagruel" will act as a springboard for our proposition that Theleme is a New Jerusalem. Through textual analysis of biblical texts and those of Rabelais, we intend to bring to light their intertextual relationships as well as that of certain works pertaining to a New Jerusalem which were of importance during the sixteenth century, namely those of Joachim of Flora, Calvin and Torquato Tasso. / We will begin by presenting a compilation of what has been established about Theleme to date. Following this, we will present Duval's arguments culminating in his two conclusions: firstly, that Pantagruel is a "Christ-Redeemer" for the race of Giants, and secondly, that Pantagruel is an epic of the New Testament. We will then take these conclusions one step further by proposing that just as the New Testament ends with the Book of Revelation, the Rabelaisian cycle Pantagruel-Gargantua is also brought to a close with the advent of a New Jerusalem. / Next, we will present a historical overview of the founding of abbeys up to the time of Rabelais in order to counter the claim that Theleme is an anti-monastery or a counter-abbey. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Among all the works that the literary canon designates as "classics," the works of Francois Rabelais are certainly among those that were most, and for the longest time, censured and transformed by adapters and commentators. / Literature for young readers, an ensemble of texts whose boundaries are defined by the target readership, is a veritable small industry which, having received a boost right after the Second World War, has not stopped growing since 1945. Nonetheless, the practice of adapting classical works in order to make them "accessible" for children has been current since the 19th century. / The adaptations for young readers of Rabelais's Gargantua have been at the intersection of these two phenomena. Censorship is not practiced today like it was at the time of this father of French letters. Nevertheless, the process of adapting a literary work for young readers still consists of suppressing passages in the text, modifying the narrative structure, and adding a significant paratext. Adaptation may also simplify the language, eliminate discrepancies, transform the narrator's point of view, etc. / We have, thus, analyzed significant modifications in four versions of Gargantua adapted for young readers, in order to identify the goals that led to the rewriting of the text. In particular, we have turned our attention to three of these goals: "concern for the young reader's amusement and distraction", "concern for the young reader's education" and "preservation of the young reader's innocence". We have found that five means have been used in order to reach these goals: "adding a paratext", "abridgement of the text", "purification of the language", "simplification of the narrative voice" and "simplification of the language".

One can see many poems in the five books of Francois Rabelais. These pieces in verse are sometimes inspired by the "Grands Rhetoriqueurs", or by poets of the like of Clement Marot or Mellin de Saint-Gelais, contemporary to the author. Rabelais reverses and parodies the forms he imitates; likewise these very codified poetic forms are often particularly well-suited to parody. In this case, analyzing the co-text proves to be essential when judging parodies that are often ambiguous and more ludic than they are satirical. Moreover, the poetry encases itself into the work, which in turn follows models of comedy and parody: the comic-epic and the Menippean satire. / Far from being a whim on the part of the author, or a mere nod in the direction of his friends who were poets, Rabelaisian poetry surprises the reader by its variety, which provides a fascinating portrait of the vitality of the poetical debates of the period.

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