The Study For Angela Carter’s Reconstructed Fairy Tales

Angela Carter (1940-1992), who is famous for her courageous, subversive andimaginative reconstructed fairy tales of feminist, has been one of the most creativeand controversial British writers in the mid-term and late period of the19th century.Based on the close textual analysis, I have tried my best to research on the integrity ofthe whole reconstructed fairy tales written by Angela Carter. In the thesis, from thefeminist theoretical perspective on the construction of time and space, male’s andfemale’s bodies, female’s desires and subject, I pursue on analyzing and exploring thediversified feminist ideas and the constructing strategies in the texts of AngelaCarter’s reconstructed fairy tales.The thesis is mainly divided into three parts. After the brief introduction aboutAngela Carter and her distinguished works in the first chapter, in the first part (thesecond chapter), the background of the modern industrial and commercial society isrevealed firstly; and then, the perception of relative time is analyzed, which assistsfemale in cognizing her body, her sexual desire and saving herself in Angela Carter’sfairy tales; At last but not the least in this part, the game of space reflecting powerrelationship between male and female is explored detailedly as well. In the secondpart (the third chapter), based on the analysis of the space reproduction by male andfemale’s revolt in the space transforming, focusing on male’s intention to constructthe domestic and private space in the Gothic style which is far apart from the society,the identity of male in Angela Carter’s fairy tales is exposed, who belongs to thediscriminated, suppressed and persecuted minority of deviant sexualities in thetraditional rigid hierarchy of sexualities in the Western society. The emasculatedfeatures of male’s body beneath the gaze of female are analyzed as well. In the thirdpart (the fourth chapter and the fifth chapter), based on the subversive discussion onfemale’s body standardized autocratically, defected morbidly and normalizedinherently in the traditional male-dominated society, and feminist supremacy in thetraditional feminism, the diverse modern femininity reconstructed by Angela Carter is probed into, which focuses on female’s body, female’s desires and the practical livingfor female. Moreover, the reconstructed diversities of female’s desires and female’ssubject are explored, including female’s intellectual curiosity for male’s and female’sbodies, female’s thirst for knowledge of female’s sexual desire in the specific privateand perceptual experience, female’s desires for rescuing female themselves andreconstructing the sexual relationship of harmonious companion by making good useof female’s body and desires. Besides, the problems which are raised by female’sbody and desires are considered carefully as well. The sixth chapter is the conclusionof the essay.