FABULISTIC INSIGHTS INTO JUSTICE AND HUMAN DIGNITY AS DEPICTED IN LA FONTAINE’S FABLES TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

This paper has tried to contextualize justice and human dignity as depicted in two tales adapted from La Fontaine’s Fables, examining the two terms from a bi-lingual and bi-cultural perspective. The two (2) fables titled “The Villager & the Serpent” and “The Horse and the Ass” were written in the 17th century by Jean de La Fontaine: French poet and fabulist. A man who experienced injustice many times before attaining fame, lost all material wealth and died a tenant. His Fables, usually called Les Fables de La Fontaine, were published over the last 25 years of his life. The first volume appeared when the author was 47 years. The book includes some 240 poems and timeless stories of countryfolk, heroes from Greek mythology, and familiar beasts from the fables of Aesop, from which La Fontaine unhesitatingly borrowed his material. The last of his tales were published posthumously. Each tale has a moral - an instruction on how to behave correctly or how life should be lived. Hence the choice of this great poet and fabulist, who lived among a people that attained liberation through popular justice and upholding cultural values, determined by collective prise de conscience to attain Justice and human dignity.