In his 2014 collection Mes contes de Perrault, acclaimed Franco-Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun rewrites 10 of Charles Perrault’s 11 fairy tales, setting them in a vaguely Arab and Muslim world. In this talk, Seifert considers what Ben Jelloun’s reworking of the fairy-tale form and his investment in Perrault more generally tell us about the encounter between France and the Maghreb. Ben Jelloun’s ambivalence toward the fairy-tale form, which parallels Perrault’s own approach, illuminates the complexities facing the postcolonial Francophone Maghrebi writer in our current moment. There will be a reception in CMU 204 after the lecture. Lewis C. Seifert is the Chair of French Studies at Brown University.