Abstract

In this article, a chapter from a more general study, the butterfly is considered as an arresting `index', highlighting the evolution of children's culture and the relationships between science and literature. Comparing Furetière's knowledge of this insect, as set out in his Dictionnaire universel (1690), to its literary representations in Charles Perrault's or Fénelon's tales, helps to assess the context in which children's literature came to be written within the higher circles of the Versailles Court society. It also explains some aspects of the `Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes'. Flying the flag for modernism, the butterfly stands in rhetorical opposition to the industrious bee or `zephyr' of the pastoral and idyll, as a sign of liberated childhood. An epilogue shows that butterflies in contemporary writings for children offer a postmodern illustration of the baroque trend that was initiated in children's literature at the end of the 17th century, and impart a special flavour to some of the most popular tales and picture-books