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Beyond Masculinist Monologue

Posted on:2008-09-15Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:R LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360242970338Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Angela Carter is one of the most outstanding novel-practitioners in contemporary Britain. Nights at the Circus, Carter's penultimate novel, is one of her masterpieces. It vividly and incisively demonstrates Carter's devotion to the demythologizing of patriarchal ideologies and the subversion of traditional esthetics so as to reconstruct the relationship between literary constructions and cultural constructions, thus unfolding her ultimate concerns about human values and existential conditions.Dialogic poetics is a profound and complex system, which manifests itself as the polyphonic features and carnivalization of novelistic discourse while as an interactive self-other relationship from the perspective of living style. Therefore, this thesis attempts to open up a new dimension to the studies on Nights at the Circus through exploring the dialogicity both reflected in the themes and artistic form of this novel: Integrating the respect of "others" and "otherness" into the writing of novel, Carter was dedicated to the liberation of literary language dominated by patriarchal monologic logic, thus searching for her own voice as a female writer allowing the hidden voices of women and nature which is empathetic with unconventional women to be uncovered in the dynamic self-other relationship by employing the techniques of polyphonic narrative and carnivalization in her service. Yet Carter didn't fall into the monologic trap again in her query of man's authoritative consciousness. Open dialogic relationship not merely exists between male patriarchal consciousness and the authentic consciousnesses of "others" including women and nature, but also among different female characters. This thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter One first offers a general introduction to Angela Carter's uniqueness and aims of novel writing, and then follows a brief literary review of Nights at the Circus, finally explores the embracing of otherness in Bakhtinian dialogic poetics to build a theoretical model for the detailed analysis to follow. Chapter Two explores some possible factors nourishing Carter's values and arts in this novel, including the immense influence from family, the illumination of literary contacts and Carter's sober contemplation of women's existential conditions in Early 1980s.Chapter Three is devoted to discussing the polyphonic features of this novel, which are demonstrated in terms of Carter's ironic dialogues with western male-canonical myths and texts through intertextuality, the inner dialogue within Walser between the two voices of his patriarchal trait and eager for freedom, as well as the dialogues among different women characters around the arena of woman liberation. Continuous dialogues uncover the voices of different women, and make the emancipation of women a dynamic enquiry.Chapter Four expounds the pervasive carnivalesque atmosphere which obscures patriarchal borders and nourishes freedom and harmony. On the one hand, the rigid hierarchies are comically reversed: both the subversive grotesque image of Fevvers and the degradation of Wasler deconstruct the traditional dominant status of the male; nature which is empathetic with unconventional women also challenges the superiority of male characters through the noble animals outshining them in this novel. On the other hand, both the carnival laughter of Fevvers and Walser undermine patriarchy, thus making dialogue possible. Fevvers' laughter mocks the patriarchy while Walser's subverts the closure of his own belief system. The strongly-defined female voice as the traditional marginalized otherness is conveyed through Carnival laughter. Indeed, under the comic atmosphere is Carter's sober contemplation of and reaction to the social culture.The conclusion part indicates that the extraordinary liberation of literary discourse from the domination of patriarchal monologic logic in Nights at the Circus not only displays Carter's outstanding writing skills, but also her longing for a dialogic and harmonious living space and her continuing enquiry for the emancipation of women.
Keywords/Search Tags:Nights at the Circus, Polyphonic narrative, Carnivalization, Dialogicity, Otherness
PDF Full Text Request
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