Carnivalized Features In Angela Carter’s Wise Children

Angela Carter (1940-1992) is generally acknowledged as one of the eminent female writers within the scope of English contemporary literature. From an overview of the bulk of Carter’s writings, the carnivalesque spirit can be traced everywhere. Her last novel, Wise Children, is especially illustrious for applying distinct carnivalized features, various allusions, unique language style and profound motif, thus making it quite a stir in the English literature world.Based on detailed analysis of the novel, this thesis intends to focus on the carnivalized features in Wise Children in light of M.M.Bahktin’s theory of carnivalization. Carnival, liberating from the privilege and the prohibition, centers on carnival sense of the world, utopianism and the spirit of universal dialogic equality, thereby subverting the social hierarchy, as well as eliminating the boarder between the center and the edge of the world. With the significance of subversion, Carter’s carnivalized ideas and the spirit of equality are implied in Wise Children, but the relevant researches remain to be expanded. Thus, the discussion is carried out from the following three aspects:to start with, it analyzes the typical carnivalized collective of the novel--the paired-images represented by Peregrine and Grandma Chance, the Chance sisters as well as the Hazard brothers, and clownish figures such as Gorgeous George and dwarf Puck; secondly, it probes into carnivalized chronotope (time and space), in which representatives from different ages, opposite genders, disparate social status and diverse backgrounds come together to freely contact with each other, thereby breaking down the previous social hierarchy and rules; finally, it further expounds the carnivalization of artistic thinking implied in this novel from the aspects of the ritual of crowning and decrowning, parody on Shakespeare, as well as the duality of death and rebirth. It is in the carnivalesque atmosphere that Carter not only vocalizes the silenced women, but also puts forward serious queries for the social and cultural issues, so as to make an attempt to establish an equal and harmonious world.Through the carnivalized features of Wise Children, Carter endeavors to challenge the ideas of the authority and the social hierarchy, in the hope of establishing the utopia with equality and freedom, as well as pluralistic coexistence.