The Ogre As Lycomorph

THE OGRE AS LYCOMORPH _______________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________________________ by AARON KOEHNEMANN Dr. Mary Jo Muratore, Dissertation Supervisor MAY 2010 © Copyright by Aaron Koehnemann 2010 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled The Ogre as Lycomorph Presented by Aaron Koehnemann A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. ________________________________ Mary Jo Muratore ________________________________ Sean Ireton ________________________________ Dan Sipe ________________________________ Valerie Kaussen ________________________________ Carol Lazzaro-Weis Thanks, Mom and Dad. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Mary Jo Muratore, my dissertation director, advisor, and teacher. Without her continued willingness and extraordinary ability to go above and beyond the call of duty in these functions, this work would never have reached its current state. ii Table of Contents: Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………...ii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..iv I. Introduction: definition of terms, purpose and scope………..………………………….1 II. The Wolf: A. The Predecessors to the 17th Century French Literary Wolf: 1. Medieval Bestiaries …………………………………………...……....12 2. Bisclavret……………………………………………………………...17 3. Le Roman de Renard………..……………………………………….. 25 B. The 17th Century French Historical Wolf: 1. Lupine Associations at Witch Trials......................................................34 C. The 17th Century French Literary Wolf: 1. La Fontaine …………………………………………………………. .47 2. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge ……………………………………………. 64 D. Statistical Analysis and Summary of Wolves……………………..………… 71 III. The Ogre: A. The Predecessors to the 17th Century French Ogre: 1. Origins and Evolutions………………………………………………..74 2. Basile…………………………………………………………………..88 B. The French Literary Ogre: 1. Perrault………………………………………………………………...96 2. Aulnoy………………………………………………………………..112 3. Auneuil……………………………………………………………….135 4. Mailly…………………………………………………………..…….146 C. The French Quasi-Ogre 1. La Barbe Bleue et Le Prince Guerini………...………………………151 D. Statistical Analysis and Summary of Ogres…………….…………………...165 IV. Closing Arguments & Synthesis of Analyses………………………………………173 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..………..180 Vita……………………………………………………………………………………...186 iii LIST OF TABLES Figure Page 1. Wolf Traits ......................................................................................................... 71-73 2. Ogre Traits ...................................................................................................... 168-172 3. Synthesis .................................................................................................................178 iv « L’on voit certains animaux farouches, des males et des femelles, répandus par la campagne, noirs, livides et tout brûlés du soleil, attachés à la terre qu’ils fouillent et qu’ils remuent avec une opiniâtreté invincible ; ils ont comme une voix articulée, et, quand ils se lèvent sur leurs pieds, ils montrent une face humaine, et en effet ils sont des hommes ; ils se retirent la nuit dans les tanières où ils vivent de pain noir, d’eau et de racines ; ils épargnent aux autres hommes la peine de semer, de labourer et de recueillir pour vivre, et méritent ainsi de ne pas manquer de ce pain qu’ils ont semé » - La Bruyère, Caractère # 128 This caractère of La Bruyère is indicative of more than the burgeoning social conscience of the late 17th century. It also juxtaposes man and animal in such a succinct yet significant way that it merits more profound investigation along these lines. The description begins as would any naturalist’s observation of an animal in the wild, but when it is revealed that man is the subject, the reader cannot help but be stunned at the sudden revelation that man can so easily be mistaken for a beast and distinguished only when his name is invoked. One question that this raises is whether this caractère is an example of anthropomorphism or something else. Anthropomorphism, by definition, is the assigning of human traits to animals. Consequently, La Bruyère’s characterization is not an example of anthropomorphism. In fact, this caractère represents the exact opposite idea: animal traits are conferred onto humans. What is even more intriguing is that this same phenomenon can be found in many of seventeenth century fairy tales as well. In this case, however, it is not man, but an ogre whose traits are bestialized, and more importantly, the animal to which he is most relentlessly compared is the wolf. As there was no term in Seigneuret’s Dictionary of Literary Themes and motifs (or indeed, any other dictionary) to describe this phenomenon of ascribing animal traits onto a human figure, I took it upon myself to consider some possibilities: zoomorphism, or even therianthropy. Upon investigation, I learned that both of these terms already exist, 1 but are typically reserved for a nobler aspiration: assigning animal traits to deities in primitive or atavistic cosmologies. Ergo, another term would be needed. I then began to wonder where I might find other examples of these terms as they apply to man, and I was surprised to find an abundance of possibilities throughout the works of various authors of the 17th century in the French canon. Indeed, I am not the first literary critic to give thought to the subject. For example, Homayoun Mazaheri has juxtaposed and distilled the views of some of the most renowned authors and thinkers of the 17th century concerning the relationship between man and animals in the article “L’animal dans Les Caractères de La Bruyère.” Mazaheri recalls Descartes’ opinion that animals are little better than machines, doing what their primitive brains order them to do, and thus are inferior to man and his more sophisticated brain and God-given free will. Mazaheri then notes La Bruyère’s opinion on the subject of animal ability: “Je ne sais point si le chien choisit, s’il se ressouvient, s’il affectionne, s’il craint, s’il imagine, s’il pense” (135). La Bruyère, on the other hand, seems quite prepared, in his caractère #128, to accord animals the same capacities as human peasants. Finally, Mazaheri points out La Fontaine’s position on this topic: « que l’animal pense et raisonne, et que l’homme, en somme, ne diffère guère de lui » (136). This attitude is clearly reflected in his fables where man and animal cohabitate and even interact verbally on occasion. La Bruyère’s suggestion and, more so, La Fontaine’s certainty that animals have intelligence is suggestive of a larger issue concerning many other renowned writers of this period in France’s history: namely, the blurring of the line between man and animal. 2 One interpretation of the blurring of the line between man and animal, namely, the wolf, is the werewolf, a commonly occurring figure in France (as well as Germany) in the seventeenth century. The wolf is unique among animals for it alone received consideration for melding with man to make a bestial amalgam figure. There is a reason for this: the wolf alone posed such a serious threat to man as to warrant both fear and hatred on a large scale. There were no weretigers in France because no tigers were present to usurp the wolf’s place in the forests and therefore did not come into the minds of frightened and baffled Frenchmen searching for psychological and criminological scapegoats for atrocious crimes. There were no werefoxes in France because the fox did not present a credible threat to members of a society who were plagued by larger, more dangerous predators hunting in large packs. Perhaps there would have been no werewolves in France if bears had been more problematic or if wolves had not inhabited that part of the world. Ultimately, figures of imagination, myth and literature are entirely dependant on the geographical and historical reality. By learning which natural resources and animals abound in a given region at a given time, one has a window into the origins of the myths of that particular people. Geographic and temporal particulars aside, there remains a universal tendency of the human imagination to consider and develop relationships between man and animals that bears exploration. In this dissertation, I explore the representation of wolves and ogres in French literature from medieval times to the late seventeenth century in order to elucidate the blurring of the line between animal and man. Specifically, I will demonstrate that French ogres reveal both human and wolf-like traits, traits that the French have consistently ascribed to a much feared predator. First I will examine the representation of the wolf in 3 and then the representation of the ogre in order to more closely examine the parallels between the two. It is my hypothesis that seventeenth century French ogres share so many characteristics with mankind that they can be dubbed essentially human, and also that these ogres simultaneously share so many characteristics with (the contemporaneous French conception of) wolves that the ogres can most accurately be labeled as a lycomorph, something blurring the line between man and wolf that is not

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