Animal sauve enfant abandonné : quand la topique animalière vient éclairer autrement les topoï répertoriés (à partir du Shâhnâmeh de Ferdousi)

Abstract

<p>The article continues with the post entitled "Poetic memory or the use of topos "ENFANT ABANDONNE" in Milan Kundera’s The unbearable lightness of being " published on the SATOR research notebook by Madeleine Jeay, in which she shows that Kundera works a topical situation corresponding to a number of topoi listed in SATORBASE as ADOPTER ENFANT TROUVE, DESOBEIR ORDRE DE TROUVER ENFANT, ENLEVER SECRETEMENT ENFANT etc. The article continues this reflection and focusses on the animal topic in the Shah Nameh of Ferdousi, reflecting on the role of the Simorgh (this mythical bird that plays an essential role in Persian culture and that is found in the Manteq-et-their (The dialogue of the birds) of Farid eddine Attar and in the metaphysical and philosophical texts of Avicenna and Sohravardi. In the Shah Nameh the Simorgh rescues Zal, abandoned as a child by his father, King Sam, and raises him until the latter, now an adult, finds his father who grants him the royal filiation. And the child is fed at night by a gazelle. Such topical configurations that could be called ANIMAL SAVES CHILD ABANDONS are very widespread. We question the original scene of a close relationship between human sovereignty and animal sovereignty, the part of sovereignty being equally distributed between man and animal which is here the inseparable adjuvant. The methodological question of topical naming is also addressed.</p>