«FORT UTILE ET NÉCESSAIRE À LA GUÉRISON»: LES FACETTES DU RIRE CURATIF RABELAISIEN
“VERY USEFUL AND NECESSARY FOR HEALING”: THE FACETS OF RABELAISIAN CURATIVE LAUGHTER

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts to retrace the development of curative laughter in the five books of François Rabelais’s Pantagrueline Chronicles. I will largely focus on the peritexts of the four authentic books and briefly call on a few representative episodes from the actual narratives, including the Fifth Book. Rabelais’s peritexts function as theory and practice of the author’s main objectives, including different facets of therapeutic laughter. The analysis will be centered around the satirical intentionality of this type of laughter, covering a broad range from festivitas to urbanitas, at the service of the development of the readers’ critical thinking. This capacity constitutes the ultimate weapon in his combat with the forces of abusive and malicious authorities opposed to any trace of therapeutic laughter.

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