A Study Of Angela Carter's Rewriting Of The Fairy Tale

Angela Carter is a famous writer of contemporary English literature. She is a prolific writer and her works are rich in content and varied in style. As a supporter of the feminist movement, Carter subversively parodies classic works of traditional fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories——a short story collection she wrote in the 1970s. As far as Carter is concerned, the stereotyped gender images in traditional fairy tale undoubtedly constraint, moralize and then paralyze women to "bite the bullet" and feel contented to be a "woman behind her man". In the collection, Carter gives a voice back to women and reshapes the gender image of women. In her works, the patriarchal gender consciousness has gone. However, Carter's viewpoint is neither radical nor extreme and the gender image in her works is not a rigid "black and white" model. In her writing, Carter strives to seek for the sexual equality in a real sense. She holds an almost "neutral" and "detached" attitude and courageously portrays "pornography" in her works. With her unique feminist perspective, Carter's writing gives her readers a refreshing feeling.This thesis selects four short stories in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories——"The Bloody Chamber", "Tiger's Bride", "The Lady of the House of Love", and "The Company of Wolves". Through analyzing gender images in the stories, Carter's unique gender consciousness will be revealed from a feminist perspective. On the one hand, Carter deconstructs the male discourse; on the other hand, she does not agree with the other extreme——gender hegemony. What she tries to convey is to show new cultural and literary realities where sexuality and free will in women replace the patriarchal traits of innocence and morality in traditional fairy tales.