The temple of reading: architectonic metaphor in Rabelais

Author: Posner D.M.

Source: Renaissance Studies, Volume 17, Number 2, June 2003 , pp. 257-274(18)

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Abstract:

This essay examines Rabelais's uses of architectural metaphor and imagery to guide his readers towards sound interpretation, while fending off those readers unwilling or unable to read in a properly charitable spirit. Rabelais simultaneously imitates and parodies classical, biblical, and patristic metaphors of ædificatio, and in so doing seeks to build a community of interpreters that will find the true senses of his text. The comic or parodic aspects of the text are, for Rabelais, inseparable from the hermeneutic act, and are essential both to accurate reading and to a recognition of the limits of any possible interpretation. (pp. 257–274)

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1477-4658.t01-1-00020

Affiliations: 1: Loyola University, Chicago

Publication date: 2003-06-01