| This research attempts to understand the context of emergence and evolution of the genre of the joyful prognostication, dating from late Middle age and early Renaissance, as well as to establish its typology. To achieve this, it uses the methodological approach of literary history, as proposed by Hans Robert Jauss. First, it identifies the formal and thematic characteristics specific to the genre of the serious astrological prognostication by studying a sample of eight texts composed between 1533 and 1590. This method is then applied to a corpus of six joyful prognostications published between 1530 and 1612, and to Jean Molinet's eight joyful prognostications, all written between 1476 and 1498. His texts are considered to be the first ones of the genre in all European medieval languages. Francois Rabelais's Pantagrueline Prognostication, likely the most known and studied joyful prognostication, is compared to all of these texts to comprehend how it influences the evolution of the genre by the way it appropriates and modifies its characteristics. Establishing the typology of the two studied genres allowed us to identify five thematic categories : astronomical data, political elements, themes relating to agriculture and those relating to human condition, found both in serious and joyful prognostications, and carnivalesque themes, found only in joyful prognostications. It emerged that joyful prognostications fall in two major trends: those intended to entertain the reader or listener, like Molinet's writings, and those that attempt to share an ideological message through laughter, as in Rabelais's Pantagrueline Prognostication. .;Keywords : French literature, Renaissance, Middle age, parody, astrology, joyful prognostication, Molinet, Rabelais. |
