From Magical Realism To Feminism

Angela Carter (1940-1992) is one of the greatest writers of Britain in the 20th century. The Times ranked Carter tenth in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". This thesis focuses on one of her masterpieces Nights at the Circus and analyzes the feminist ideas in the novel with the aid of magic realism. Analyzing from the perspectives of the female fantastic characters, unconventional human relationships and the magical realistic writing techniques, the thesis attempts to unveil Carter's feministic ideas about the pursuit of self-identity and the harmonious gender relationship from the employment of the combination of fantasy and realism and the shift of time and space of magic realism.The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter One examines the subversive female fantastic characters portrayed in the novel, which selects the typical female images:the born New Woman, the woman experiencing transformation and the anti-traditional mother. Analyzing from their fantastic body, nontraditional social behavior and the legendary life story, Carter portrays the subversive female images and the process of their pursuit of the self-identity.Chapter Two studies unconventional human relationships depicted in the novel. There are two types of human relationships in the novel:the relationship between man and woman and the relationship between women. In the relationship between man and woman, through three kinds of man hurt woman:the man with high social status, the rich man and the common man, Carter presents men's discrimination to women in the patriarchal society. As for the love relationship between the hero and heroine, it shows Carter's pursuit of gender balance. In the relationship between women, the establishment of female museum and panopticon show that some women become the male accomplice and even the male avatar impacted by male-dominance, gazing female to make them an object. The establishment of the female Utopia and the resistance of women in panopticon display that woman should unit together to resist the control of the male society.Chapter Three concentrates on the magical realistic writing techniques of the novel on the basis of characters and relationships, suggesting the change of the inner world of characters and the growing process of New Man and New Woman. There are two typical features of magic realism employed in the novel, namely, the combination of fantasy and reality and the shift of time and space. These techniques enable Carter to track inner world of characters and the change of characters. Hero becomes a New Man accepting female and gender equality from the classical traditional man. Heroine becomes a New Woman accepting the harmonious gender relationship from the woman against man and marriage. From the perspective of psychological time and non-linear time and space, Carter directly shows the inner world of characters.The conclusion points out that the employment of magic realism subverts the traditional female images and gender relationships. Carter creates the image of New Man and New Woman and advocates the harmonious and equal relationship between man and woman.