La Bible d’Herman de Valenciennes et le problème du genre littéraire
The so-called Bible of Herman of Valenciennes is the most
ancient and widespread verse rewriting of the Bible in Old French.
It has been described in some recent contribution as a product of a
hybridization of literary genres: the exploitation on religious contents
of the system of formal marks typical of the chanson de geste. Aim
of this contribution is to discuss the historical plausibility of this
reconstruction with regard to both its consistency with Herman’s
text and its largest implications. The case of the Bible will show
some of the limits of the idea of literary genre as heuristic tool in a
field, the religious narrative, historically and typologically crucial.