"De venin et d'anvie" : Réécritures de Judas dans la littérature française du Moyen Âge

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the representation of Judas and its evolution in french literature from the XIth to the XVth century. This period gives a particular importance to the figure of the biblical traitor, which various literary genres illustrate – such as biblical poems, Mysteries, hagiographical Lives and Visions. While Judas is only briefly introduced in the Bible, his representation is enriched with legends (childhood, post-mortem punishment, miracles…) and with an interiority which directly depends on the invention of his verbal expression. This work focuses on showing how the character fits in a certain ideological and literary context (and demonstrates it), but also how his textual construction fully participates in the literary history of the end of the Middle Ages – through his symbolic, theological, psychological and poetic potential.