프랑스 르네상스 인문주의에 대한 재고찰: 라블레의 ‘가르강튀아’를 중심으로

Abstract

François Rabelais is one of the outstanding representatives of the French humanism in the period of Renaissance. The first half of the 16th century, in which he took an active part, is the heyday of the French Renaissance, and his career as well as his literary works symbolically incarnate the characteristic of the period. His activities can be understood in the context of the Humanism: his career which principally is composed of a monk, a surgeon and a writer; the achievements of an Renaissance man, who mastered the Greek language, chose the medical science, ventured the human anatomy and wrote popular novels; his energy which was invested in the translation of the Greek classics, in reception of the new sciences, in propagation of the new knowledge through the literary works. Gargantua, one of the treasures of the French Renaissance, summarizes the educational philosophy of Rabelais. According to this book, the education of the French Renaissance must criticize the formalist education of the medieval times and head toward that of the whole man; it must introduces not only the perfect universal knowledge like an encyclopedia, but also underline the importance of the physical exercises and the arts; in respecting the learners, it must invite the new ways just like discussion, observation, experiment, in order that the learning must be a source of the real pleasure. Finally, as its ultimate purpose, this education proposes a free ethical subject, who acts and decides according the his free will.