Description
Book SynopsisBronwyn Reddan challenges the idealization of fairy-tale romance as the ultimate happy ending by showing how the women writers who dominated the first French fairy-tale vogue, the
conteuses, used the genre to critique the power dynamics of courtship and marriage.
Trade Review"
Love, Power, and Gender in Seventeenth-Century French Fairy Tales is a notable addition to scholarship of the conteuses' literary tales and provides a multidimensional view of the gendered experience of love and of the trope of the happily-ever-after."—Adrion Dula,
Journal of American Folklore“In recent years scholars have ‘rediscovered’ the unique contributions made by women writers to the development of the literary fairy tale in France, and one of the most thorough and perceptive studies is Bronwyn Reddan’s
Love, Power, and Gender in Seventeenth-Century French Fairy Tales. . . . Reddan’s superb work gives full voice to tales that are still important in our own day.”—Jack Zipes, professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota
“With this important book, Bronwyn Reddan invites us to take seriously the ways in which the seventeenth-century French fairy tales written by women revise the codes of love and gender of their day. Emotions have a complex history, and fairy tales reflect that history in great detail. Reddan urges us to reconsider our preconceptions about fairy tales, love, gender, marriage, and power. And more fundamentally, she allows us to see that a genre too often considered to be simplistic and trivial is in fact diverse and profound.”—Lewis C. Seifert, professor of French studies at Brown University
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
List of Tables
Note on Sources and Translations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Reimagining Fairy-Tale Love
Part 1. Formation of a Literary Emotional Community
1. The Creation of a Female Literary Community
2. A Shared Vocabulary of Love
Part 2. Conversations about Love
3. Courtship, Consent, and Declarations of Love
4. Marriage, Gift-Giving, and the Obligation of Love
5. Love after Marriage: Moral Lessons and Unhappy Endings
Conclusion: Truth Finding in Fairy Tales
Appendix 1: French Fairy Tales, 1690–1709
Appendix 2: Tales Produced by the Conteuses, 1690–1709
Appendix 3: Publication Details of the First Known Editions of the Conteuses’ Tales
Appendix 4: Publication Details of Literary Works by the Conteuses
Appendix 5: Declarations of Love by Heroes
Appendix 6: Declarations of Love by Heroines
Notes
Bibliography
Index
