d'Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine - Anne E. Duggan (essay date 2001)
Anne E. Duggan (essay date 2001)
SOURCE: Duggan, Anne E. “Nature and Culture in the Fairy Tale of Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy.” Marvels and Tales 15, no. 2 (2001): 149-67.
[In the following essay, Duggan examines the tales “The Bee and the Orange Tree” and “Gracieuse et Percinet” to consider how d'Aulnoy employs cultural notions about women's nature.]
Fairy tales of late-seventeenth-century France are replete with images of nature. Stories often take place in forests and idyllic gardens serving as the backdrop for the actions of animal-like characters, as well as princes and princesses momentarily metamorphosed into animals. At the same time, these tales put forth ideals of behavior that seem more appropriate for a court or city culture than for wild forests or the countryside. Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy's “L'oranger et l'abeille” (“The Bee and the Orange Tree”) is particularly striking in its representation of a savage...
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