Subversion From Wise Children

Well-acclaimed for her unconventionality and originality in the artistic creation,Angela Carter (1940-1992) is a renowned contemporary British female writer. As aself-claimed “demythologizer”, Carter has devoted her whole life to the shattering ofdifferent kinds of myths constructed in Western culture, especially the male myth aboutfemale. In her swan song Wise Children (1991), she rejects the imposed literaryconventions and social ideologies, intends to subvert the binary oppositions imbedded intraditional thinking, and undermines all the patriarchal myths about the authority of theofficial.As a famous theorist of literature and art in the world, Bakhtin’s theoretical ideasand methods have been widely used in text interpretation. His dialogic theory is aprofound and complex system, with carnival, chronotope and polyphony as its importantcore concepts. Through comparing characters of two generations, this thesis attempts toopen up a new dimension to interpret Wise Children under the perspective of Bakhtin’sdialogic theory, hoping to better understand Carter’s appreciation of the wiser childrenand the significance of their choice to be “wiser”.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to Angela Carter,along with her literary career and literature review, and to Bakhtinian dialogic theory aswell. Chapter Two makes analysis of carnival subversion of the official self and showspreference to a more dialogic relationship between the twin daughters. Chapter Threedeals with Bakhtinian castle and carnival square chronotopes in the novel. Chapter Fourelaborates on polyphonic features and the subversive effects in narration accordingly.Chapter Five is the conclusion part. Through her unconventional and subversive writing,Angela Carter not only shows her concern for the marginalized other, but also expressesin the novel her expectation to deconstruct the binary oppositions such as the legitimateand the illegitimate, the official and the unofficial, and her consistent efforts for a dialogic living space for harmonious development and mutual survival of human beings.