Desire and Desirability in Villeneuve and Leprince de Beaumont's 'Beauty and the Beast'

By virtue of its marginality as a literary genre, the eighteenth-century fairy tale claims to be in a privileged position to comment on social practices and gender relationships. This article examines the representation and treatment of erotic desire and desirability in two versions of an immensely successful and beloved fairy tale, La Belle et la Bête by Mmes de Villeneuve and Leprince de Beaumont. In the light of recent developments in critical approaches to gender and sexuality, in particular René Girard’s exciting study of mimetic desire, the essay explores how the women fairy-tale writers contest the practices of female subordination, male trafficking of women and create new ways of conceptualizing desire and gender dynamics.