What is it about?
This article examines the conditions in which H. R. Jauss, in his conference entitled Literaturgeschichte als Provokation (1967), elaborated a new theoretical approach of “structural literary history”. The central position this essay holds in literary theory has accounted for its enabling a turning point in the practice and the pedagogy of literary studies : it provides a model for the problematic articulation between structural analysis and historical interpretation of texts. In an attempt to put his theory into perspective, the German historian conducted two research projects in medieval genre theory. He bases his argument on the example of animal tales from the satirical Roman de Renart of the late 12th century, and asserts that philologists, in their extensive search for evidence based on manuscript sources, have discarded both the hermeneutical interest and the structural variety developed by storytellers in their texts. This study discusses the roots of the problem, as well as the potential significance of “structural literary history” for our contemporary understanding of the theory and the practice of reading.