Angela Carter`s Fairy Tale: Myths of Gender and Sexuality

• Thesis title in Czech: Pohádka Angely Carterové: Mýty genderu a sexuality
• Thesis title in English: Angela Carter`s Fairy Tale: Myths of Gender and Sexuality
• Key words: Angela Carterová, pohádka, mýtus, narativní mýtus, politický mýtus, gender, sexualita, demytologizace
• English key words: Angela Carter, fairytale, myth, narrative myth, political myth, gender, sexuality, demythologization
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2015/2016
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 26.05.2016
• Date of assignment: 30.05.2016
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 31.05.2016
• Date and time of defence: 11.09.2017 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 02.08.2017
• Date of proceeded defence: 11.09.2017
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Helena Znojemská, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The fairytale has always been one of the most effective cultural and social instruments employed to civilize children. However, until recently, relatively little attention had been paid to the fairytale discourse. Nevertheless, I find the analysis of this discourse important, since the fairytale has a very serious didactic function in the socialization of every human being. Fairy tales are the products of the narrative and political myth, i.e. they are naturalized social fictions. As Angela Carter herself believes, myths are created when politics encroaches upon the literary realm. Such myths are historically woven into all levels of social life and cultural meaning. Carter sees myths as the “products of the human mind”[1] which represent “extraordinary lies designed to make people unfree.”[2] Here, myth is understood in both the conventional sense and in that introduced by R. Barthes as a worldview-based traditional story and as a naturalized social fiction, which Barthes discusses as a second-order set of signs or connotations, through which people assert their values. One of the motivations for the creation of such myths might be to maintain status quo, which is exactly what some of Carter`s stories deal with.
Thus, Carter sees herself most efficient at de-mythologizing cultural analysis through the format of the fairytale.
In my work, I would like to deal with how the myths of gender and sexuality are constructed to function in the fairytale discourse.
I will primarily focus on The Bloody Chamber since the collection appears to be Carter`s most successful attempt at de-mythologizing these received truths of gender and sexuality within the limits of the fairytale format. I will also discuss Carter`s fairytales for children such as Miss Z, The Dark Young Lady; The Donkey Prince, The Virago Book of Fairytales, fairytales in The Infernal Desire Machine of Doctor Hoffman, and a short story from Carter`s anthology Black Venus, "Peter and the Wolf." In addition, I would like to study some fairytale fragments in "The Fall River Axe Murders," and "Lizzie`s Tiger" – short stories that deal with Lizzy Borden`s biography.
First of all, I will begin my discussion with the issue of genre definition. I would like to discuss the traditions Carter, assuming the role of translator and editorial advisor, employs as the main sources for her own versions. Secondly, I will analyze the manufactured nature of myth within the framework provided by Ronald Barthes. Next, I would like to focus on gender politics and the construction of sexuality, and provide a description of the existing discrepancy between the scientific and political conceptions of gender and sexuality. Finally, I will examine how Angela Carter demythologizes firmly implanted gender and sexuality myths within the fairytale format. I will attend directly to the writer`s perspective as regards both phenomena. I would like to discuss the shape and structure of Carter`s fairytales, and explore how the narrative of the stories develops. My analysis will also cover the writer`s choice of language, Carter`s allusions and the power of intertextuality in her works. I am especially interested in Carter`s use of stock characters from the fairytale convention and how she rewrites well-known plots in order to subvert the politics of gender and sexuality.
[1]Angela Carter, “Notes from the Front Line,” Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writings (New York: Penguin, 1998) 48.
[2]Carter, 49.

References

Bibliography:

Primary Sources:

Carter, Angela. "Lizzie's Tiger." American Ghosts and Old World Wonders. London: Chatto & Windus, 1993.

Carter, Angela. Miss Z, The Dark Young Lady. Illus. Eros Keith. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970.

Carter, Angela. "Peter and the Wolf." Saints and Strangers. New York: Penguin, 1987.

Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. New York: Penguin, 1979.

Carter, Angela. The Donkey Prince. Illus. Eros Keith. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970.

Carter, Angela. "The Fall River Axe Murders." Saints and Strangers. New York: Penguin, 1987.

Carter, Angela. The Infernal Desire Machine of Doctor Hoffman. London: Penguin: 1982.

Carter, Angela, ed. The Virago Book of Fairytales. Illus. Corinna Sargood. London: Virago, 1990.

Secondary sources:

Angela Carter and the Fairy Tale. Ed. Danielle M. Roemer and Christina Bacchilega. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000.

Barthes, Ronald. Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. New York: The Nonday Press, 1972.

Carter, Angela. “Notes from the Front Line.” Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writings. New York: Penguin, 1998.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Irigaray, Luce. This Sex Which Is Not One. Trans. Catherine Porter. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1985.

Zipes, Jack David. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: The Classical Genre for Children and the Process of Civilization. New York: Routledge, 2006.