Fairy tales, sexuality, and gender in France, 1690-1715
Subtitle: nostalgic utopias
By: Lewis C. Seifert.
Series: Cambridge studies in French ;; 55
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Cambridge [England]; New York, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
Subjects: Fairy tales -- France -- History and criticism.; French fiction -- 17th century -- History and criticism.; French fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism.; Sex in literature.; Gender identity in literature.; Marvelous, The, in literature.; Utopias in literature.
Description: Between 1690 and 1715, well over one hundred literary fairy tales appeared in France, two-thirds of them written by women. This book explores why fashionable adults were attracted to this new literary genre and considers how it became a medium for reconceiving literary and historical discourses of sexuality and gender.

Integrating socio-historical, structuralist, and post-structuralist approaches, Seifert argues that these fairy tales use the "marvelous" (or supernatural) to mediate between conflicting cultural desires, particularly between nostalgia and utopian longings.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-270) and index.