Le mandement joyeux et la culture joyeuse en France et dans les anciens Pays-Bas (XVe-XVIIe siècles)

Abstract

In the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, a vibrant festive culture was visible in the public space both in France and in the Low Countries. Traditionally, this joyful culture has been studied from a political point of view and researchers have argued that joyful festivities often led to rivalry of social groups. This dissertation challenges this assumption and considers joyful culture as a system of performative activities and ritualised events that were primarily designed to stimulate social cohesion and feelings of belonging to a community. The mandement joyeux or joyful writ, a form of judicial parody, was a driving force behind this joyful culture and is at the core of this dissertation. The present study demonstrates that mandements joyeux were a performative type of parody that encouraged social convergence in late medieval and early modern society. In a rapidly changing world, they provided a safe platform for discussion to various groups and individuals. This work offers new insights into joyful and parodic practices through the analysis of a literary source, the mandement joyeux, in a period of major social, political and religious mutations.