Rabelais's work is complex, subtle, funny, gross, and immensely erudite. It encompasses and parodies all the kinds of discourse extant in the Renaissance: ancient and modern, popular or scholarly.

But what does it mean, either as a whole (in so far as Rabelais's work is a “whole”) or in the details of the text? Rabelais's book answers this very question in a variety of ways, but these suspicious answers cancel each other out. Is there nonetheless a serious and secret meaning to unravel? Or is it all a big joke, meant to parody and spoof seriousness? Or is it both? Or something else, after all?

Since the sixteenth century, readers have assiduously attempted to answer these questions within a variety of frames of reference: thus this novel is deemed to be about actual events, political or otherwise; or it is about serious religious issues; or about atheism; or is it about esoteric knowledge, a version of Christian Kabbalah (etc.)? How many layers of meaning are there in the text?

Modern academic critics have devoted enormous scholarly efforts to proving a variety of theories about meaning, and especially about the meaning or meanings of Rabelais's work. Some years ago I briefly succeeded in scandalizing most seiziemistes, in France and abroad, by asserting (somewhat tongue in cheek) that “Rabelais ne veut rien dire.” This calls for further elucidation…

This course will therefore be focused on the question of (literary) interpretation, as it is featured in Rabelais's work and in the work of his critics through the ages. We shall particularly focus on some earnest, late twentieth-century attempts to settle once and for all the question: What does it all mean?

During the semester you will have to write several short “reaction papers”, and one term paper (+/- 15 pages). A final exam can be arranged on demand.

Strart reading Rabelais before the beginning of the term. I will expect you to have a serious acquaintance with “Pantagruel” when the course begins.