Self-questioning In Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop

The Magic Toyshop is a dark fairytale novel about the growth of women written by Angela Carter.The novel has been studied from various perspectives,and realist studies assert that the novel should be classified into magical realism.However,Carter defines the novel as a self-questioning of reality.There is a lack of research on Carter’s realistic self-questioning,but Carter’s self-questioning has important research value in terms of the objects of questioning,the way of interpreting and the reflection after discussion.The self-questioning of reality in The Magic Toyshop is consistent with the alienation of human beings in the current social order of high-efficiency and embodies Carter’s postmodernist criticism.This thesis analyzes Carter’s realistic self-questioning in The Magic Toyshop and discusses it in the process of questioning,answering,and reflecting.Following previous postmodernist studies,this study extracts the three keywords of identity,abuse,and alienation in the novel as the three levels of the realistic self-questioning.The first layer is discussed on a personal level,where Carter questions the lack of self-awareness under the closed-loop of identity.Carter uses the contingency of identity to promote uncertainty in individuals,thus evoking their self-awareness.The second layer focuses on the unbalance between the individual and the collective,and is a questioning of the collective abusive relationship in the absence of individuality.Carter pursues the unity of individuality and collectivity by depicting the entanglement of the abusive relationship.The third layer extends to the relationship between the human beings and the social order,and is a questioning of human alienation under the lack of humanity.Carter further adds uncertainty through the anti-causal law and the end of destruction,showing the value of humanity,the critique of alienation in the efficient order,and the importance of uncertainty to resist risks.This thesis argues that uncertainty exists in the core of human nature and is fundamentally unified with it.Uncertainty serves as Carter’s answer to the selfquestioning of reality,through the evocation of humanity and the affirmation of its value as a critique of abusive relationships and human alienation.The perception of uncertainty in human nature is of great significance for the social system to prevent risks and becomes the fundamental motivation for people to form self-awareness and continuously explore the world.The cognition of uncertainty in modern society has become a meaningful way to counter the repression and alienation of human nature under the efficiency order.It has shown an important role in reshaping human nature and enhancing the anti-fragility of the social system,reflecting Carter’s postmodernist critical thought,which is of great significance to the criticism of alienation and materialism in modern society.