"Justine": A Sadian Transformation of the French Literary Fairy Tale

Although various writers have made fleeting references to fairy-tale aspects found in the Marquis de Sade's libertine texts, no one has placed him squarely in the fairy-tale tradition. This thesis argues that Sade's Justine, his maiden libertine publication that appeared during the waning years of the French literary fairy-tale vogue (1690-1789), is in fact a tragic fairy tale. Using conventional motifs and narrative forms associated with the fairy tale, Sade transformed Justine into a tale that served to entertain and deliver a critical message of the mores and especially the institutions of his era. Sade borrowed elements from all three waves of the one-hundred year vogue to produce the darkest tale of all, which, placed in a socio-historical context, reflected the tumultuous final years of the Enlightenment. The fairy tales of the earliest writers, most of whom were women, served as models for other writers of the genre throughout the vogue. Like the conteuses (early female fairy-tale writers), Sade used the frame-tale device to communicate potentially subversive ideas. Justine resembles the Perraldian heroine in that she is physically and spiritually beautiful and survives victimization with courage and dignity. The influence of the second wave, characterized by the oriental tale, is felt in the exotic-erotic fantasy tableaux in Justine and in his designation of the heroine as the storyteller. Finally, Sade integrates satiric, parodic, and libertine features of the tales produced during the third wave. Justine is a melange of fairy-tale elements from each wave transformed into an original work of dark extremes. Sade borrowed from past writers of the genre to create a story so provocative that it was at once banned and influential. He continued the tradition of using the fairy tale as a means of entertainment disguising social criticism. In the context of what many considered to be a frivolous literary form, he spoke about the nature of power and its association with evil. He used the fairy-tale format to portray crime and thus perpetuate evil through countless retellings.