http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ati/Evil/Evil%208/ozum%20paper.pdf - Deconstructed Masculine
Evil in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber Stories
http://londongrip.co.uk/2010/10/love-terror-emancipation/ - Jenny Fabian considers Angela Carter's interrogation of authority in The Bloody Chamber
http://www.scribd.com/doc/125743642/Angela-Carter-Interview-Marxism-Today-1991 Interview with Angela Carter
Pornography, Fairy Tales, and Feminism: Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber'- Robin Ann Sheets (Printed out)
http://www2.stetson.edu/library/green/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/prize_2010Formisano.pdf Angela Carter and 'Glam Rock' Feminism
Thursday 16 January 2014
Monday 13 January 2014
Christmas Homework- Polemical
http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/carter.html
Angela Carter was, without question, a 20th Century original. No matter what one thinks of her writing, no one can argue that she was ever less than unique. Magic Realism, Surrealism, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Gothic, Feminism, Postmodernism – all of these categories apply, and yet all are one-dimensional in their application to Carter; none of them, with the possible exception of Surrealism, encompass the full spectrum of her accomplishments.
Carter's maiden name was Stalker, perhaps more fitting than the surname of her first husband, which she retained as her own. The daughter of socialists, Carter grew up in South London. All of her immediate female relatives were strong women of striking candor and pragmatism. And yet, paradoxically, Carter fought to overcome teenage anorexia caused by low self-esteem.
Well-off but pro-active, Carter anguished over the closing of mines and the breaking of mining strikes in the 1960s, and over the failures of the socialist revolution in general.(1) While a student at Bristol College, Carter hung out in sidewalk cafes and at smoky backroom poetry readings. In addition to absorbing the bohemian nightlife, Carter studied psychology and anthropology. She also developed a strong liking for Rimbaud and Racine, and for French literature in general.
A devout atheist who first dabbled in poetry and journalism, she metamorphosed into one of the most original writers of the post-World War II period. Her creativity was fed by travels to Japan and Russia that greatly influenced her fiction. When she did finally come to the United States, it was almost as an afterthought, although she captured the essence of the country in The Passion of New Eve (1977).
Lorna Sage makes the excellent observation that Carter seems to have lived her life out of the normal order:
Angela Carter's life – the background of social mobility, the teenage anorexia, the education and self-education, the early marriage and divorce, the role-playing and shape-shifting, the travels, the choice of a man much younger, the baby in her forties – is the story of someone walking a tightrope. It's all happening "on the edge," in no man's land, among the debris of past convictions. By the end, her life fitted her more or less like a glove, but that's because she'd put it together by trial and error, bricolage, all in the (conventionally) wrong order. Her genius and estrangement came out of a thin-skinned extremity of response to the circumstances of her life and to the signs of the times.(2)
Neither did her work ever fit, as Salman Rushdie pointed out, the definition of "moral fiction" as championed by John Gardner: Angela Carter was a thumber of noses, a defiler of sacred cows. She loved nothing so much as cussed – but also blithe – nonconformity. Her books unshackle us, toppling the statues of the pompous, demolishing the temples and commissariats of righteousness. They draw their strength, their vitality, from all that is unrighteous, illegitimate, low.(3)
Angela Carter was, without question, a 20th Century original. No matter what one thinks of her writing, no one can argue that she was ever less than unique. Magic Realism, Surrealism, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Gothic, Feminism, Postmodernism – all of these categories apply, and yet all are one-dimensional in their application to Carter; none of them, with the possible exception of Surrealism, encompass the full spectrum of her accomplishments.
Carter's maiden name was Stalker, perhaps more fitting than the surname of her first husband, which she retained as her own. The daughter of socialists, Carter grew up in South London. All of her immediate female relatives were strong women of striking candor and pragmatism. And yet, paradoxically, Carter fought to overcome teenage anorexia caused by low self-esteem.
Well-off but pro-active, Carter anguished over the closing of mines and the breaking of mining strikes in the 1960s, and over the failures of the socialist revolution in general.(1) While a student at Bristol College, Carter hung out in sidewalk cafes and at smoky backroom poetry readings. In addition to absorbing the bohemian nightlife, Carter studied psychology and anthropology. She also developed a strong liking for Rimbaud and Racine, and for French literature in general.
A devout atheist who first dabbled in poetry and journalism, she metamorphosed into one of the most original writers of the post-World War II period. Her creativity was fed by travels to Japan and Russia that greatly influenced her fiction. When she did finally come to the United States, it was almost as an afterthought, although she captured the essence of the country in The Passion of New Eve (1977).
Lorna Sage makes the excellent observation that Carter seems to have lived her life out of the normal order:
Angela Carter's life – the background of social mobility, the teenage anorexia, the education and self-education, the early marriage and divorce, the role-playing and shape-shifting, the travels, the choice of a man much younger, the baby in her forties – is the story of someone walking a tightrope. It's all happening "on the edge," in no man's land, among the debris of past convictions. By the end, her life fitted her more or less like a glove, but that's because she'd put it together by trial and error, bricolage, all in the (conventionally) wrong order. Her genius and estrangement came out of a thin-skinned extremity of response to the circumstances of her life and to the signs of the times.(2)
Neither did her work ever fit, as Salman Rushdie pointed out, the definition of "moral fiction" as championed by John Gardner: Angela Carter was a thumber of noses, a defiler of sacred cows. She loved nothing so much as cussed – but also blithe – nonconformity. Her books unshackle us, toppling the statues of the pompous, demolishing the temples and commissariats of righteousness. They draw their strength, their vitality, from all that is unrighteous, illegitimate, low.(3)
A literary guerilla and 20th Century Bosch, Carter infused her work with humor and wonderfully profane wisdom. At the heart of her fiction lay a sturdy, non-didactic Feminism. Few writers have as successfully told stories within stories, created dense, baroque prose, and still, in the end, delivered on an emotional level. Carter's untimely death from cancer in 1992 at the age of 51 was a great loss for fiction.
Helen Simpson
“But while she used fantasy to discuss ideas, it is also obvious that it was the landscapes and imagery of fairy tales and legends that fired her imagination - bloodstains and ravens' feathers on snow, moonlight on a dust-grimed mirror, graveyards on Walpurgisnacht. The stories in The Bloody Chamber reverberate with deep and unmistakable imaginative pleasure. There is an astonishing extravivid materiality to this alternative world she invented, down to the last sensuous detail, like the candle which drops hot wax on to the girl's bare shoulders in "The Tiger's Bride". She loved to describe the trappings of luxury, to display rich scenery in rich language. Dialogue came less naturally to her and she avoided it for years, joking that the advantage of including animal protagonists in her work was that she did not have to make them talk.”
“But while she used fantasy to discuss ideas, it is also obvious that it was the landscapes and imagery of fairy tales and legends that fired her imagination - bloodstains and ravens' feathers on snow, moonlight on a dust-grimed mirror, graveyards on Walpurgisnacht. The stories in The Bloody Chamber reverberate with deep and unmistakable imaginative pleasure. There is an astonishing extravivid materiality to this alternative world she invented, down to the last sensuous detail, like the candle which drops hot wax on to the girl's bare shoulders in "The Tiger's Bride". She loved to describe the trappings of luxury, to display rich scenery in rich language. Dialogue came less naturally to her and she avoided it for years, joking that the advantage of including animal protagonists in her work was that she did not have to make them talk.”
Much of
contemporary women’s writing attempts to offer significant tactics for the
reclamation of women’s bodies with the aim of mapping out new territories of
female autonomy. The British
author Angela Carter (1940-1992)
demonstrates in the majority of her writings an intensive concern with how
embodied sites of power are often created or reinforced through various
mythological narratives or frameworks. More specifically, Carter interrogates the extent to which the
privileging or reappropriation of the maternal body as a source of feminine
power poses itself as a problematic terrain in various feminist discourses. In
contrast to the majority of Carter’s earlier texts, which tend to remain focused on contesting
patriarchal myths of femininity, in Heroes and Villains (1969) and The Passion
of New Eve (1977), the author explicitly parodies matriarchal myths in
order to examine how these do not necessarily guarantee a different symbolic
order but often end up reiterating phallocentric representations of women’s
bodies. Although these texts
clearly rely on deconstructive tactics, unravelling the ‘blind spots’ that are
inherently located in any ideological framework, Carter also begins to
suggest possibilities for constructing a specifically feminine discourse of
subjectivity, one that is located ‘elsewhere’ or outside of phallocentric
parameters. [3]
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mfsfront;c=mfs;c=mfsfront;idno=ark5583.0021.104;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mfsg
Angela Carter’s critique of matriarchal myths is primarily explored through the narrative tactics of feminist dystopia. Generally, the speculative nature of dystopia works by pushing areas of representation to their extreme limit, portraying a ‘bad place’ (as opposed to utopia’s ‘good’ place) through the negative projection of existing social relations as they might play out in the near future (Mahoney: 74). According to Elisabeth Mahoney, feminist dystopia is an extremely discomforting realm, as its depiction of sexual violence and desire tends to implicate women as well as men in perpetuating those binary oppositions that keep gender relations confined to positions of “subject and object...master and victim” (73, 75). Feminist dystopia thus often challenges various feminisms to confront their own fantasies of power as a possibly ‘bad place’ (Mahoney: 75).
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mfsfront;c=mfs;c=mfsfront;idno=ark5583.0021.104;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mfsg
Angela Carter’s critique of matriarchal myths is primarily explored through the narrative tactics of feminist dystopia. Generally, the speculative nature of dystopia works by pushing areas of representation to their extreme limit, portraying a ‘bad place’ (as opposed to utopia’s ‘good’ place) through the negative projection of existing social relations as they might play out in the near future (Mahoney: 74). According to Elisabeth Mahoney, feminist dystopia is an extremely discomforting realm, as its depiction of sexual violence and desire tends to implicate women as well as men in perpetuating those binary oppositions that keep gender relations confined to positions of “subject and object...master and victim” (73, 75). Feminist dystopia thus often challenges various feminisms to confront their own fantasies of power as a possibly ‘bad place’ (Mahoney: 75).
Monday 6 January 2014
Christmas Homework- Viewpoint
Jayden Parkinson: Grave body inquest opens
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-25494231
A girl was missing for more than two weeks, and recently her body was found
buried in a disturbed grave.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/woman-murdered-while-housesitting-at-bosham-seaside-property-9032077.html
A woman was murdered whilst house sitting for friends that were on holiday. The woman was not alone in the house, other members of her family were staying with her, so was she targeted because she is an older woman?
A woman was murdered whilst house sitting for friends that were on holiday. The woman was not alone in the house, other members of her family were staying with her, so was she targeted because she is an older woman?
New Year
honours list recognises more women than men for first time
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/30/new-year-honours-list-2014-women
It has taken 97 years for the honours list to recognise more women than men.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/30/new-year-honours-list-2014-women
It has taken 97 years for the honours list to recognise more women than men.
Flooding Continues to Threaten UK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25584221
Bad weather has effected Britain, many places have become flooded. The Thames flood
barriers have been closed. It is not just Britain that has faced severe weather…
Bad weather has effected Britain, many places have become flooded. The Thames flood
barriers have been closed. It is not just Britain that has faced severe weather…
North America Weather: Polar vortex
brings record temperatures
brings record temperatures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25609411
America has been suffering from weather that has come down from the Arctic. It has caused
more than 16 deaths.
America has been suffering from weather that has come down from the Arctic. It has caused
more than 16 deaths.
South Sudan Conflict
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25617980
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25617980
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"We raise them to cater to the fragile egos of men. We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls you can have ambition but not too much. Otherwise, you will threaten the man. If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, you have to pretend you are not in public, otherwise you will emasculate him... Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage. I’m expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors, not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.
Feminist: A person who believes in the social political and economic equality of the sexes.”
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Friday 3 January 2014
Christmas Homework- Carter
Carter
Angela Carter has written well over thirty pieces in her career. They include non-fiction novels, short fiction, poetry collections, dramatic works, radio plays, and children's books.
Angela Carter has written well over thirty pieces in her career. They include non-fiction novels, short fiction, poetry collections, dramatic works, radio plays, and children's books.
In 1967 Angela Carter’s novel ‘The Magic Toyshop’ was
published. ‘It follows the development of the heroine, Melanie, as she becomes
aware of herself, her environment, and her own sexuality.'
'The novel starts with
Melanie stealing her mother's wedding dress and venturing out in the night into
her family's property. However, on her way home, she realises she forgot the
door key and is forced to climb up a tree to get back into her room, destroying
the dress in the process.’ Melanie’s parents die and she is sent, with her two
siblings, to live with their Aunt and Uncle. The Uncle is a horrible man who
runs a toyshop and makes puppets for a puppet show. The narrator of the story
becomes friends with another boy, Finn, who lives in the house. He kisses her
but she is unsure of her feelings for him. Finn does something wrong in the
puppet show and is beaten by the Melanie’s Uncle. After this he becomes
defeated and stops washing. Then Melanie then has to take part in the puppet
show in a scene where her character is to be raped, but she does not live up to
her Uncle’s standards either and he hits her. Her Uncle leaves on a trip and Finn
decides that he won’t stand for the Uncle’s abuse anymore and sits in his place
at the dinner table. The Uncle returns, enraged, and burn the house down.
Melanie and Finn escape knowing that they will get married and be happy
together.
Christmas Homework- Society
Society
In the years before The Bloody Chamber was published women’s rights were very prominent in the media. In 1975 Margaret Thatcher was named leader of the Conservative Party and then in 1979 went on to become Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. In 1976 The Equal Opportunities Commission comes into effect to oversee The Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act.
In the years before The Bloody Chamber was published women’s rights were very prominent in the media. In 1975 Margaret Thatcher was named leader of the Conservative Party and then in 1979 went on to become Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. In 1976 The Equal Opportunities Commission comes into effect to oversee The Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s in America the Women’s
Liberation Movement was forming. It was sparked by women trying to get their
views heard in at the National Conference of New Politics (NCNP) in Chicago in
1967. They were told that their demands were not important enough for them to
be brought to the floor so 5 women went up to the podium to speak and try and
get their views heard. One of them was patted on the head by the Director of
the NCNP and he said something along the lines of, “move on little girl; we
have more important issues to talk about here than women’s liberation.”
In September 1981 the Greenham Women’s Peace Camp was established to protest against nuclear weapons being held at the Greenham Common RAF site. In December 1982 they held the ‘Embrace the Base’ event which involved 30,000 women who created a human chain in protest. After this the camp became well known and in 1982 70,000 protesters formed a human chain that was 14 miles long. The camp was gaining a lot of media attention and prompted other women around Britain and Europe to start similar camps.
The highest grossing film of 1979 was Kramer vs Kramer, in which it shows a couples divorce proceedings and the effect that it has on everyone around them. The father is left to look after his son without knowing what to do and after a while they become close. A custody battle ensues and custody is awarded to the mother because the court believes that the child will need his mother more. The film ends with the father being able to keep his son because the mother agrees that they need each other.
The second highest grossing film in 1980 was 9 to 5, this is a film where 3 women are able to ‘get even’ with their "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss. Starring Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda.
The Tiger's Bride Questions
1. How would you characterise Belle's father?
Belle's father is obsessed with material things and is addicted to gambling. This becomes his downfall as he loses his daughter because of it. He sees his daughter as an object and would rather have money and wealth than a family.
2. When the carriage comes for Belle to take her to the Beast's castle, her father wants a rose. What does the rose symbolise in this passage?
The Rose that Belle gives her father is tainted with her blood. The rose is supposed to symbolise Belle's forgiveness to her father, but it shows that she resents him for gambling her away.
3. What is the significance of the maid that Belle gets? What could it symbolise? How does what ultimately happens to her help develop it as a symbol?
Belle gets a soubrette as her maid, this could symbolise Belle being robotic and living a false life, the kind of life that society wants her to live. The soubrette could symbolise society's ideal woman and the unrealistic nature of these expectations.
4. What is the significance about the diamonds that the Beast gives Belle?
The diamonds could link with The Bloody Chamber and how the Marquis gives the girl a ruby choker, he has malicious intentions and he wants to kill her, whereas the Beast gives Belle diamonds which are pure and clear and they show that the Beast holds no ill intentions towards her.
Belle's father is obsessed with material things and is addicted to gambling. This becomes his downfall as he loses his daughter because of it. He sees his daughter as an object and would rather have money and wealth than a family.
2. When the carriage comes for Belle to take her to the Beast's castle, her father wants a rose. What does the rose symbolise in this passage?
The Rose that Belle gives her father is tainted with her blood. The rose is supposed to symbolise Belle's forgiveness to her father, but it shows that she resents him for gambling her away.
3. What is the significance of the maid that Belle gets? What could it symbolise? How does what ultimately happens to her help develop it as a symbol?
Belle gets a soubrette as her maid, this could symbolise Belle being robotic and living a false life, the kind of life that society wants her to live. The soubrette could symbolise society's ideal woman and the unrealistic nature of these expectations.
4. What is the significance about the diamonds that the Beast gives Belle?
The diamonds could link with The Bloody Chamber and how the Marquis gives the girl a ruby choker, he has malicious intentions and he wants to kill her, whereas the Beast gives Belle diamonds which are pure and clear and they show that the Beast holds no ill intentions towards her.
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