Explorations of female-empowered sexuality in the stories of seventeenth-century French author Charlotte-Rose de la Force.
Companion research statement to previous post
Why is there value in exploring a subversive expression of female-empowered sexuality within a seventeenth-century sensibility?
Introduction
During the seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century, literary fairy tales were written and adapted by women of the French aristocracy to suit the sensibilities of their audiences; each other. The later revisioning of these fairy tales, particularly by the Brothers Grimm in their 1812 collection, removed “whatever trace of sexuality (that) remained” (Blecourt, 2012, p. 11). While fairy tales are no longer synonymous with female-empowered sexuality, it was during this period when these authors used subversion in the form of literature to express their deepest desires, challenge the authority of both church and state and define what it was to be a woman of that period. Yet in modern academic interpretations, fairy tales are viewed as having clearly defined gender roles for women, of their submission and obedience, rather than being viewed as invaluable cultural artifacts of their time. Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force (1650-1724) was one of these seventeenth-century authors, all her stories contain either sexual innuendo, or some feigned innocence or symbolism of female sexuality.
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