Reynard the Fox

<p> There are many stories featuring the villainous hero Reynard the Fox in many languages told over many centuries goingback as far as the early 12th century. All these stories are comic and much of the humour depends on parody and satire resulting in mockery sometimes the subversion of certain kinds of serious literature of political and religious institutions and practices of scholarly argument and moralizing and of popular beliefs and customs. The contributors to this volume all of them experts in one or more of the Reynard stories and their backgrounds focus on the transformation of these tales through various media and to what extent they reflect differences in the cultural class and generational background of their tellers.</p>