« Treschevaleureux capitaines » contre « crocheteurs de flascons » : lecteurs et lectorats dans les Fascetieux devitz des Cent nouvelles nouvelles du Seigneur de La Motte Roullant

Abstract

During the Renaissance, the short narrative owes its success partly to its social ubiquity: fables, fabliaux, and short stories circulated in very different realms, from the court to humanist circles, from bourgeois society to the clergy. However, with the popularity of the short story collection between 1540 and 1550, we see their peripheral texts (peritexts) begin to feature readerly figures with a marked literary and social significance, sometimes explicitly opposed to one another: bourgeois readers and courtly readers, respectable women and gentlemen, amateurs of Italian-style novellas and readers of bawdy tales. This article offers an analysis of these divisions on the basis of a collection where they are particularly salient: the Fascetieux devitz des Cent nouvelles nouvelles printed in Lyon under the name La Motte Roullant (1549). Here, the representation of a differentiated and highly colourful readership plays a part in the definition of an audience for French-style nouvelles.