Pantagruel de François Rabelais

This special issue of the journal Le Verger, co-edited by Paul-Victor Desarbres and Louise Millon-Hazo, is devoted to François Rabelais’s Pantagruel, a work included in the syllabus for the French agrégations in modern and classical literature. It offers a collective reappraisal of the text in light of contemporary critical approaches, combining literary analysis, history of knowledge, and reflection on discursive forms.The introduction, “Pantagruel au présent ?”, opens the volume by questioning the contemporary relevance of Rabelais’s first fictional book. The issue is then structured around several thematic axes. Alice Vintenon’s contribution, “Les ‘enfleure[s] bien estrange[s]’ (Pantagruel, chap. 1): Fantaisie médicale et affirmation des libertés de la fiction”, explores the relationship between medical knowledge and creative imagination.A second section focuses on textual performance: Élie Génin, in “La Prosopopée dans Pantagruel”, analyzes the enunciative stakes of this rhetorical figure, while Nicolas Le Cadet, in “Énumérations et listes dans Pantagruel”, highlights a poetics of abundance grounded in accumulative devices.The question of laughter is addressed through Myriam Marrache-Gouraud’s article, “Rire avec Panurge”, which examines the modalities and ambivalences of Rabelaisian humor.Finally, Louise Millon-Hazo, in “La masculinité dans Pantagruel”, offers a reflection on constructions of masculinity within the novel.