Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber and Other Stories: The Dialectics of Themes, Modes and Genres in the Context of the Postmodern Gothic Fairy Tale

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): „Krvava odaja i druge priče“ Angele Carter: dijalektika tema, modova i žanrova u kontekstu postmoderne gotske bajke
• Author: Matko Kosovec
• Mentor: Iva Polak (mentor)
• Committee member: Vanja Polić (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Tihana Klepač (član povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Iva Polak (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2019-09-04, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction by Angela Carter, first published in 1979. This paper examines the theory of genres of the fantastic, gives insight into theoretical and thematic dualities through exemplary tales, analyses the context of a postmodern Gothic fairy tale and its tropes and themes, discusses locality and setting through Foucault’s heterotopias and introduces a different perspective on pornography and sexual desire in Carter’s stories. This paper will argue that Carter’s collection transcends the boundaries of a specific mode and genre and that each story is an independent narrative unit set in its own world with a particular set of laws of nature and spaces that play a significant role in the structure of these narratives. It will also propose that there are six archetypes of sexual desire; two female and four male ones, and that pornography plays a major role in Carter’s fairy tales.

• Keywords: Angela Carter; Gothic; fairy tale; fantasy; postmodernism; heterotopia; genre; short fiction; post-feminism; pornography; sexual desire
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:531213
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Literature and Culture; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2019-09-26 15:52:09