Though it stages fictions very far from our present preoccupations, Medieval literature is a good observation point from which to reflect on our current issues. Like the detour through the Japanese concept of Naraku that the present volume takes as its theme, borrowing the worldview of Medieval thinkers can present a useful mediation for thinking about present reality from the sidelines. Through the works of Paul Zumthor2 or Hans Robert Jauss3, we have seen that the historical distance which separates us from the Middle Ages produces a defamiliarizing effect on our usual concepts. Thus, the medieval conception of a crisis is a good detour to envision the similarities and differences of our current global crisis with its analogues in the Middle Ages.