This article analyses the representations of infanticide in French street literature between 1574 and 1651 through the study of the canards, chapbooks sold to a wide audience. In the analyzed period, these texts circulated fantastic and bloody stories, which highlighted female cruelty. Acting at the same time as a product and a driving force of the growing moralization of the realm, these pieces show the dangers of debauched women, and the need of controlling them. In search of a literary depiction of the criminal woman's social image and her otherness, this paper deals with the transmission of a moral code to women and the concerns about infanticide, part of a relentless struggle against the corruption of youth.
street literature; infanticide; violence; gender; Early Modern period
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