Celebrating Men in Rabelais

Abstract

This article examines Gargantua and Pantagruel in relation to the corporative culture of carnivalesque abbeys of misrule. The juxtaposition of the abbey of Thélème episode with institutional texts stemming from burlesque abbeys which promoted positive values of masculinity through bacchic rites and charivari leads to a redefinition of Thélème as a masculine carnivalesque utopia. Moreover, we note the tightly woven relationship between gender-related and bacchic concepts constitutive of the group ideology and ritual practices of abbeys of misrule, which inspired Rabelais's literary imagination. This perspective allows us to establish a conceptual coherence and narrative continuity between the Thélème episode, the marital subject of the Tiers Livre and the bacchic peregrination of Pantagruelists in the Quart and Cinquième Livres.