Abstract
In “The White Cat” (1698), Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy controverts received notions of the fairy tale in length, complexity, and subject matter by presenting a covert critique of the symbolic paternal order she inhabited: the society revolving around the absolutist Louis XIV of France. When embedded in sociocultural, political, and personal contexts, this tale thus invites reading as a factographic text grounded in lived experience. Part 1 foregrounds several precursor texts interwoven into d’Aulnoy’s narrative. Retelling old tales dissociates her subversive story from direct correlation with the author. Part 2 examines the repetitive motif of emboîtement or enclosure throughout “The White Cat” and its generative causes.
Recommended Citation
Barzilai, Shuli. "Madame d’Aulnoy’s “The White Cat”: A Factographic Fairy Tale." Marvels & Tales 35.2 (2022). Web. <https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/marvels/vol35/iss2/3>.
