Reflection and Reflexion: Female Coming-of-Age: the Mirror Stage and the Absence of Mirrors in Robin McKinley's Beauty and Rose Daughter
journal contribution
posted on 2025-06-25, 04:22authored byEvelyn M Perry
In Robin McKinley's novels Beauty and Rose Daughter (both retellings of Madame Leprince de Beaumont's "Beauty and the Beast"), McKinley describes adolescent coming-of-age as a psychological development both traumatic and identity-shaping; its ultimate success allows young adults to understand their actions as individuals as well as members of the adult community.
Both McKinley's versions of adolescent coming-of-age in the traditional tale are structured to double Lacan's theory of a child's psychological development--the transition from the Imaginary to the Symbolic Order-- in that they contain a second set of Lacan's three stages.
History
Journal
The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature
ISSN
1551-5680
Volume
8
Issue
1
Publisher
La Trobe University
Section Title
Jabberwocky
Date Created
2010-04-19
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Data source
OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/191