The bestiary of woman has undergone such a profound transformation in our urban civilization that it has become difficult to recognize, in the few animal metaphors still in use, the remnants of a once-flourishing tradition. The rare animals that still capture attention are situated solely within the realm of desire or contempt: rabbit or cat, female dog or cow. Yet the creative function of the bestiary has not disappeared. In the past, the search for zoomorphic traits that could define woman gave rise to the creation of strange and mysterious animals like the mermaid and the unicorn, which are like "missing links" not in the zoological order, but in the epistemological order. - [Author]

Language: French

Locators: DOI: 10.7202/036584ar