IGS/SCT 530J Term 1
Studies in Period:
Instructor: Marianne Legault
Imagining the Feminine (Self): Female Narratives in Fairy Tales and Novels in Old Regime France
Course description
Women’s contribution to the field of literature in Early Modern France is remarkable. In both the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they controlled the majority of the literary production for two of the most popular genres in France: the novel and the fairy tale.
In the confines of the textual space, women authors break free of social and moral conventions by giving way to audacious and often defiant narratives. Through the analysis of these two genres, this course proposes to discuss the relationship between female narratives of desire and female self-representations in a selection of fictional works by women writers. These texts will be examined against the background of what was thought, at that time, to be exemplary literary models for both genres: Perrault’s tale Cinderella, and the female love narrative par excellence, as constructed by Guilleragues in Love Letters from a Portuguese Nun.
Prescribed texts:
- Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Berneville, comtesse de. The White Cat. 1698.
- Charrière, Isabelle de. Letters of Mistress Henley Published by Her Friend. 1784.
- Graffigny, Françoise de. Letters from a Peruvian Woman. 1747.
- Guilleragues, Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, vicomte de. Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun. 1669.
- Lafayette, Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Madame de. The Princess of Cleves. 1678.
- Course Pack available at UBC Okanagan bookstore.
Last reviewed 
1/4/2008 7:27:18 PM
