Abstract EN:

Absent from froissart's chronicles is the clear distinction between so-called historiographic truth and fiction. Typical for its epoch, the work appears to take its place within the larger current of moral and didactic literature of the second half of the fourteenth century. At the center of this research is, then, froissart as a witness of his times and all the attendant perspectives that this entails. In the chronicles, which are a literary reconstruction of the countryside, we discern what the chronicler makes of the n otion of territory and of the distinction between poor and rich countries. The castle and the town are the principal sit es where power is seen to be exercised; their description permits this power to be symbolized and thus explains their po litical prestige. The character of the prince, his education and his councilors find themselves at the heart of a number of episodes. The references to clothing, to food, to horses, and to the hunt are seen as elements constituting a symbolic representation of society. The peasants and townspeople, notably those in revolt, as well as the people of the outlining areas of the times are seen as essentially a danger for the established order and hierarchies. The chronicles of froissart reflect a tension between a literary desire for cohesion in the world and the very disorder of the epoch witnessed by the chronicler himself.