DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN

Fanny Alice Marchaisse holds a PhD in French and Francophone Studies from Northwestern University, where she completed her dissertation, Gallant Fairies: Enchanted Ideals and Subversive Bodies in Late Seventeenth-Century France (2025). Prior to her doctoral studies, she earned an M.A. (M2) in Literature, Discourse, and Francophone Studies from Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC), Paris, in 2018, with a thesis entitled Le genre comme page blanche: Médiévalisme et Gender Studies. Her research focuses on early modern French literature, with particular attention to literary fairy tales authored by women, exploring how these texts negotiate gender, sexuality, and social norms through imaginative and subversive forms.

Her scholarship combines folklore studies, feminist literary history, queer theory, and historical contextualization, examining the intersections of cultural ideals, embodiment, and autonomy in the works of Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, Henriette-Julie de Murat, and Catherine Bernard (amongst others). Marchaisse has presented her research internationally and published articles and book chapters analyzing gender, fairy-tale narratives, and early modern literary culture.

In addition to her research, she has extensive experience teaching French at the undergraduate level, to adult learners in community programs, and to high school students in intensive summer courses. Her courses have included French language instruction, literary analysis, and thematic explorations of existentialism and fairy-tale literature, emphasizing immersive learning, critical thinking, and student engagement.

Marchaisse’s work situates early modern French fairy tales within broader intellectual and cultural conversations, highlighting their role as dynamic sites of experimentation, ethical reflection, and social critique, and demonstrating their continued relevance to contemporary discussions of gender and literary form.