Ecofeminism Consciousness On Angela Carter’s Works

Angela Carter, whose works are full of modernity, is one of the most renowned British women writersof20thcentury. With great talent and rich imagination, she creates her works with grotesque style andgothic atmosphere. Her works are pregnant with meaning and contain thought-provoking philosophicalmeanings. She actively participates in women’s liberation movement and delves into gender relationship.When Angela Carter gradually realizes that gender inequality does not stem from males, but the patriarchyitself, she tends to pursue gender equality. She does not always ruthlessly criticize androcentrism inWestern society any more. Therefore, her works created at later period are full of ecofeminismconsciousness. In the author’s opinion,“The Tiger’s Bride”,“The Company of Wolves” and “Wolf-Alice”embody the ecofeministic awareness of Angela Carter, respectively. Scholars at home and abroad whoresearch “The Tiger’s Bride” are from the perspective of feminism criticizing males’ cowardice andweakness while praising females’ bravery and rebellion and embodying their thought of pursuit ofindependence. Previous studies on “The Company of Wolves” are from the view of moral metaphor,intertextuality and feminism and so on. As for researches on “Wolf-Alice”, scholars also illustrate the girl’simage employing feminism perspective. Few researches on those short stories are from the view ofecofeminism, though two essays can be found out in CNKI. What’s more, it is fewer to combine those threestories together utilizing the ecofeminism theory. Therefore, in order to fill the gap, this thesis will try toadopt ecofeminism theory to analyze those three short stories.The introduction of the thesis introduces the author and her representative works. This part also has aliterature review including scholars’ researches on Angela Carter and her works at home and abroad. Theliterature review focuses on the researches on “The Tiger’s Bride”,“The Company of Wolves” and“Wolf-Alice”. Based on those researches, the author of this thesis is attempting to explore the further spaceand possibilities. Meanwhile, this part introduces the research motivation, questions, methodology andobjectives. It also generalizes the organizations of this thesis.Apart from introduction and conclusion, the main body of this thesis consists of four chapters. Thefirst chapter of the thesis gives an account of ecofeminism theory including its definition and significance,the ecofeministic idea of Angela Carter and demonstrates the feasibility of ecofeminism theory to the three texts. Based on the ecofeminism theory, the second chapter analyses “The Tiger’s Bride” from the innateaffinity between the bride and nature, the binary oppositions between the bride and father, the bride and themilord, namely, the dualistic opposition between male and female. Although the previous parts embody theecofeministic idea of Angela Carter, her standpoint is not firm in dealing with the gender relationships inthe end for male is excluded from the harmonious world. Therefore, it can be seen that Carter’secofeminism view in “The Tiger’s Bride” is not mature. Then, the third chapter elaborates the patriarchalculture in subtext, subverts the binary opposition with the main body in this story and demonstrates theharmonious world in the end based on the ecofeminism theory. The last chapter exploring Carter’secofeministic idea in “Wolf-Alice” is also from the natural connection between Wolf-Alice and nature, thedualistic oppositions between male and female, human and nature.In conclusion, according to the ecofeminism consciousness embodied in those three stories by AngelaCarter, readers will find that Angela Carter’s ecofeminism thought gradually becomes mature and that herthought is farsighted and enlightened because it echoes the call for construction of harmonious society.