Robin McKinley's Deerskin : Challenging Narcissisms

Robin McKinley's Deerskin (1993) is both a reconÞguration of Charles Perrault's "Peau d'ane" and a powerful contemporary fantasy that makes prominent the flawed family structures, especially the mutual narcissism of the heroine's parents, that underlie the sexual violence of the story. An examination of these destructive relationships in terms of Jacques Lacan's schemata demonstrates the aptness of McKinley's characterizations. This study also considers Deerskin in the context of tales of the Catskin type (AT 510B), as well as some questions of implied audience raised by the novel's fairy-tale background and its other fantastic elements.