Reinventing the fairy tale’s heroine in the novel 'Barbe bleue' of Amélie Nothomb

In the 20th and the 21st centuries, many writers have shown an interest in rewriting traditional fairy tales. In contemporary literature, fairy tales are thus reinvented, adapted to the historical reality, the vices, the weaknesses and the imperfections of contemporary human beings. This study analyses the reinvention of the fairy tale’s heroine in Barbe bleue, by French writer Amélie Nothomb, and published in 2012. This study will show how the rewriting of this millenary text questions the schematic and stereotyped relations between characters in traditional fairy tales.