Spatiality And Subiectivitv In Angela Carter’s Fiction

Angela Cater (1940-92) is a versatile writer whose works range from children’s stories, radio plays, and poetry to journalism and criticism. But she is principally known for her fiction which is often labeled as feminism, magical realism and picaresque. The initial impression shared both by the critics and the readers is her daring, disturbing, excessive style, and her efforts to destroy and demystify every social norm. With the demythologizing, destroying and deconstructing purpose of Carter in the background, critics explore the richness of her works in forms, themes, and postmodern techniques.The present dissertation points out another feature in Carter’s novels that have not been adequately discussed, which is her use of space against traditional time, and her re-inscription of gendered space to revolt against patriarchal society. By studying spatiality in her works, this dissertation explores Carter’s attempts to criticize, resist and rewrite hierarchical gendered discourse by analyzing it from the perspectives of lived space, specular space and bodily space. No matter how radical her works appear to be, I argue that Carter tries to build a new model of space of equality which transcends the dominant/dominated space and establishes a spatiality-subjectivity paradigm. This paradigm overcomes our state of alienation by embracing corporeality and excessiveness, the lived experiences in everyday interactions with space, and a construction of subject of becoming. Thus the new subject she advocates is based on mutual understanding, equality and love in the interrelationship with space and people, forever changing and in the process of becoming. The theoretical background of the dissertation is the spatial turn in the20th century. But the overarching main terms are the three spaces categorized in Henri Lefebvre’s Production of Space:representations of space, social practice and representational space. Three aspects are examined in the dissertation:lived space, which deals with the interaction between the inhabitants and the space in which they live; specular space, which is the imaginary space of reflection; and bodily space, which analyzes body as space. Four novels and two short story collections that particularly crystallize my argument are the focus of my analysis:The Magic Toyshop, The Passion of New Eve, Nights at the Circus, Wise Children, one fairytale adaptation collection The Bloody Chamber, and one short story collection Fireworks.