Temps de la jeunesse, temps de la folie ? : désordre juvénile dans la société des XIVe et XVe siècles
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Abstract EN:
Society during the 14 th and 15 th centuries witnessed real demonstrations of collective "folly", led mainly by the youth. Collectively perpetrated reprehensible acts, accompanied by violence, were certainly a way by which the young people got relief from his frustrations. The youth indeed lived a difficult waiting period, which was more or less prolonged according to sex and specific conditions : a step for the girls who, once they were declared able to have children, were quickly directed toward marriage, the period of youth, obliged transition to adulthood, was stretched interminally from 15-16 years of age to 30 or even 36 years of age for the boys ; this precarious situation, which could only become resolved by the youth's entry into the social establishment, marriage and its indispensable complement, procreation, had to create a climate of tension. However, the actual practices remained specifically juvenile in character and cannot be directly imputed to the insatisfaction they felt. Organized around a common age group, the young people engaged in traditional activities, in a festive and game-playing fashion, which involved the religious, economic and military domaines. Played against a background which was recognized as indispensable and accepted by the adults, youth seems to have been intrusted with a mission : to perpetuate immemorial popular customs which were unreasonable but which carried an ancient significance, and which were being lost little by little, rather than merely engaging in frivolous diversions. Being unthinkable in the eyes of the authorities and very far from the old confines of common culture, juvenile disorder was fought against because it was a serious threat to bourgeois and monarchistic order. Does this mean that youth in the middle ages wanted to be an opposition force ? in fact, it seems that the upheaval desired by everyone, and animated by youth, did not lead to any real self-interrogation on the basic fundamentals of society : unchanging, eminently repetitive and therefore expected and controled, it appeared in the form of highly symbolic ritualistic inversions. Not only did it periodically liberate minds and bodies and offer peacefulness and justify the social order, but in addition, by referring to the past (traditions) or to an imaginery utopia (land of cocagne), it expressed immobility, not a desire for social progress. During the 14 th and 15 th centuries, the period of youth was an excellent example of a period of "folly" in the mediaeval sense of the term, that is to say it was very conformist inspite of its appearances ; beneath the characteristic garments of a fool hides a harmless moderate. . .
Abstract FR:
Dans la societe des 14e et 15e siecles, ont ete observees de veritables manifestations de "folie" collective, orchestrees principalement par les jeunes. Certes, ceux-ci trouvent dans des actes reprehensibles perpetres souvent en commun, ou la violence s'exerce pleinement, un moyen de combler des frustrations. En effet, les jeunes vivent une difficile periode d'attente, plus ou moins longue selon les sexes et les conditions : etape a franchir pour les filles qui, declarees aptes a procreer, sont rapidement orientees vers le mariage, le temps de jeunesse, passage oblige vers l'age adulte, s'etire d'une facon interminable entre 15-16 ans et 30 voire 36 ans en ce qui concerne les garcons ; cette situation precaire, qui ne prend fin qu'avec l'etablissement social, le mariage et son indispensable complement, la procreation, ne peut qu'engendrer un climat de tension. Cependant, demeurent des pratiques, qui ne peuvent etre directement imputables a l'insatisfaction ressentie, et qui restent bien specifiquement juveniles. Au sein d'un groupe d'age relativement organise, les jeunes se livrent, sur le mode du festif et du ludique, a des activites traditionnelles visant les domaines du religieux, du guerrier et de l'economique. Jouant un role apparemment de second plan, mais en fait reconnu indispensable et accepte par les adultes, la jeunesse semble etre, plutot qu'occupee a des divertissements frivoles, investie d'une mission : perpetuer des coutumes populaires immemoriales, deraisonnables mais porteuses d'une antique signification qui, peu a peu, sombre dans l'oubli. Inconcevable aux yeux des autorites, fort eloignees du vieux fonds de culture profane, le desordre juvenile est combattu en tant qu'atteinte grave a l'ordre bourgeois et monarchique. Est-ce a dire que la jeunesse medievale se veut contestataire ? en fait, il apparait que le bouleversement voulu par tous, anime par les jeunes, ne debouche sur aucune remise en question reelle des fondements de la societe : immuable, eminemment repetif, donc attendu et controle, il est introduit sous la forme d'inversions rituelles hautement symboliques. Ainsi, non seulement, en delivrant periodiquement les corps et les esprits, il ramene l'apaisement et justifie l'ordre etabli, mais de plus, comme reference a un passe (traditions) ou a un imaginaire utopie (pays de cocagne), il exprime l'immobilisme et non une volonte de progres social. Aux 14e et 15e siecles, le temps de la jeunesse est par excellence le temps de la "folie", au sens medieval du terme, c'est-a-dire somme toute tres conformiste en depit de ses apparences ; sous la livree du fou, se cache un sage bien debonnaire. . .