Th.--Lett.--Nancy 2, 1982.

The inherent contradiction that lies in the systematic use of the claim to veracity in narratives built on traditional, widely used motifs and themes is the starting point of this thesis. Through a comparison of Philippe de Vigneulles' (1471-1525) Chronique and his collection of short stories the Cent Nouvelles nouvelles, this study analyses the link between the nouvelles and their historical background. Analysis of those texts whose basic structure is founded on the commission of an infraction, indicates on the one hand that the author's didactic intention, apparently of minor importance and subordinate to the comic of the tales, is in fact essential, functioning as the moral and organisational principle of these tales, and reflecting the writer's values. It shows on the other hand, that the relation between the "fait divers" and the nouvelle is not one of filiation: they are rather "twin" narrative forms or, to use the terminology of Andre Jolles in Einfachen Formen, the second is a "Relative Form" of the first.

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