Aesop’s fables and fairy tales: Differential imitation in the frontispieces

Abstract

From its inception, the literary fairy tale has sought to distinguish itself from the Aesopian fable, primarily represented by La Fontaine. In order to highlight the specificity of the genre in comparison to Aesopian fables, but also to better promote their own fairy tale collections against those of their competitors, Perrault and Mme d’Aulnoy made use of the frontispiece. It is from the perspective of “differential imitation” (which consists of imitating and recognizing one’s model while surpassing it) that we propose to study the frontispieces of Perrault’s fable collection (his translation of Faërne’s fables), his fairy tale collection (both manuscript and first edition), and those of Mme d’Aulnoy.