Voyage aux Enfers ou rêve de jeune-fille ? Les révélations curieuses de la Fille dans Le Gascon extravagant

« A trip into Hell or a teen girl’s dream ? Young woman’s curious revelations in The Gascon extravagant » 1637. The demonic possession of the Ursulines of Loudun enters its sensationalist stage. The Jesuit exorcists put their best efforts into fighting disbelief. Jeanne des Anges, the Mother Superior of the convent, who has been freed from Béhémot, a devil supposed to have engraved names on her hand, becomes a walking “miracle”. During the same year the anonymous author of Gascon extravagant decides to publish his « Histoire comique »: a supposedly possessed « Young woman » and an exorcist-« Hermit » become, for the first time, the main characters in a comic fiction. This romanesque « invention » ought not to be taken lightly: in « borrowing » this couple from the realm of demonic possession, The Gascon extravagant « negotiates » a critical space with possession. The representation denounces the dangerous power of the fable of demonic possession by situating it in a fictional medium. We will see how the so-called « Young woman » and the story of her Voyage into Hell partake of this critical representation by way of creating a narrative of rare ambiguity