Open Access

Nadège Coutaz

• This study examines how "Rebelle Antigone" (2005), a story by Marie-Thérèse Davidson intended for young readers and published in the collection 'Histoires noires de la mythologie' by Nathan, uses Henry Bauchau's novel "Antigone" (1997) to renew the intertextual dialogue with the homonymous tragedy of Sophocles, the canonical intertext of all the reconfigurations of Antigone. In other words, the author mobilizes what we could call 'l'actif relationnel' // 'relational potential' of two intertexts and two generic practices to create a new, original and challenging work for readers aged 11 to 14. This study aims to show that, far from the prejudices devaluing the so-called "children's literature", the adaptation of mythological stories for children takes up the challenge of transmitting ancient heritage in all its diversity. The use of more recent (re)writings, such as Henry Bauchau's novel, thus becomes an effective means of making the myth and its ancient intertexts both more complex and more accessible to young readers.