« L’abandon fait le larron » ? Les représentations de l’enfant abandonné de l’Heptaméron aux histoires tragiques

This contribution takes a look at abandoned children in sixteenth-century French literature, and investigates the ambivalence with which they are represented in two different genres, Marguerite of Navarre’s tales and Alexandre van den Bussche’s Tragic History. Are children exposed because they are potential criminals, or vulnerable beings that need to be protected ? Possible answers may be found in the period’s attitudes to the respective impacts of nature and culture.