La métamorphose dans les récits brefs du xii^e siècle Une matrice narrative

In twelfth-century short stories, metamorphoses generally function to interrogate the human psyche. This article shows that their function is specialised in relation to the subject being treated and the nature of the transformation: while classical matter privileges permanent transmutations which are the vehicle for a lesson of a general order, Celtic accounts prefer cyclical or ephemeral transformations which are markers of the individual development of the hero.