Monstrous Fairytales: Towards an Écriture Queer

Abstract

This paper excavates the figure of the "monstrous queer" in some familiar fairytales and considers how queer writers working in the fairytale genre might rewrite such fairytales in pleasurable ways. The paper focuses on the moment of narrative closure in which the monster or villain of the tale is routinely killed or punished. The paper argues that the homocide of the queer monster is necessary foreplay to the heterosexual union which is the ultimate goal of much fairytale fiction.