Female Objects and Feminist Consciousness for the Purpose to Awake Readers’ Awareness: A Comparative Analysis between Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Anne Sexton’s Transformations
Abstract
The female object, as a symbolic image created by male authors to reduce the threat brought by females towards patriarchy, has become a method to express male sexual and domestic fantasies. However, in the fairy tale adaptation by two mid-twentieth century female authors-Angela Carter and Anne Sexton, the female object is used to evoke feminist consciousness.
Although former studies have covered some feminism issues, for instance, the feminist awareness through the mirror image in Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, and the direct metaphors such as “doll” and “soap pop” which lead to female objectification in Anne Sexton’s Transformations, little research has compared the distinctive psychological impacts that the narrative forms between the two mentioned texts have on readers.
In the first section of this paper, how both authors deconstruct the female stereotypes and how they reinterpret modes of female agency in the original Grimm’s fairy tales have been examined. Based on the writers’ perspective, the first section would also explore the expression of female objects in their works. As for the second section, I would mainly focus on the psychoanalysis of Lacan’s mirror stages, and yet cover the awakening processes presented in the mirror images and symbols composed in the two adaptations. In the third section, the different narrative strategies utilized by Carter and Sexton in order to stimulate readers’ responses towards feminist consciousness would be illustrated.Keywords
References
Zipes, Jack. “When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition.” Choice Reviews Online 37, no. 02 (October 1, 1999): 37–0754–37–0754. doi:10.5860/choice.37-0754.
Jones, Steven Swann, and Jack Zipes. “Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales.” Western Folklore 41, no. 3 (July 1982): 240. doi:10.2307/1499668.
Lieberman, Marcia K. “‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’: Female Acculturation through. The Fairy Tale.” In “Don’t Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England.” Edited by Jack Zipes, 185-200. Aldershot, Hants: Gower, (1987). doi:10.1525/aa.1987.89.2.02a00840.
Haase, Donald. “Fairy Tales and Feminism: New Approaches.” Detroit: Wayne State University Press, (2004).
Cixous, Hélène, and Catherine Clément. “The Newly Born Woman.” Translated by Betsy Wing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, (1986).
Knowles, Murray, and Kirsten Malmkjær. “Language and Control in Children’s Literature.” London; New York: Routledge, (November 1996). doi: 10.4324/9780203419755.
Lurie, Alison. “Don’t Tell the Grown-ups: The Subversive Power of Children’s Literature.” Boston: Back Bay Books, (1998).
Hartsock, Nancy. “Foucault on Power: A Theory for Women?” In “Feminism/ Postmodernism.” Edited by Linda J. Nicholson, 157-75. New York: Routledge, (1990). doi: 10.4324/9780203699386.
Macdonald, George. “The Princess and the Goblin.” Adelaide: University of Adelaide, (2014). Available online: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/macdonald/george/princess-and-the-goblin/chapter1.html (Accessed on 21 June 2019).
Harries, Elizabeth Wanning. “Twice Upon a Time: Women Writers and the History of the Fairy Tale.” Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, (2001). doi: 10.2307/j.ctv36zqnq.13.
Friedan, Betty. “The Feminine Mystique.” New York: Dell Publishing CO. INC., (1963).
Berryman, John. “Five Young American Poets.” Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions, (1940).
Rushdie, Salman. Introduction to “Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories” by Angela Carter, ix-xiv. New York: Henry Holt, (1995).
Morton, Richard Everett. “Anne Sexton's Poetry of Redemption: The Chronology of a Pilgrimage.” Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, (1988).
Jones, Steven Swann. “On Analyzing Fairy Tales: ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ Revisited.” Western Folklore 46, no. 2 (April 1987): 97. doi:10.2307/1499927.
Kaiser, Mary. “Fairy Tale as Sexual Allegory: Intertextuality in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber”. The Review of Contemporary Fiction 14, no. 3 (Fall 1994): 30-36. Available online: https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-15906135/fairy-tale-as-sexual-allegory-intertextuality-in (Accessed on 21 June 2019).
Croce, Arlene. “Is the Muse Dead?” New Yorker, February 26, (1996), 164-169.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. “The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination.” New Haven: Yale Nota Bene, (2000).
de Beauvoir, Simon. “The Second Sex.” Translated by H. M. Parshley. London: Lowe and Brydone (Printers) LTD, (1956).
Bartky, Sandra Lee. “Suffering to Be Beautiful.” In “Gender Struggles: Practical Approaches to Contemporary Feminism.” Edited by Constance L. Mui and Julien S. Murphy, 241-56. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Pub., (2002).
Sexton, Anne. “The Complete Poems.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin, (1999).
Chafetz, Janet Saltzman. “Gender Equity: An Integrated Theory of Stability and Change.” Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage. Publications, (1990).
McGowan, Philip. “Anne Sexton and Middle Generation Poetry: The Geography of Grief.” Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, (2004).
Kaplan, Louise J. “Cultures of fetishism.” New York: Palgrave Macmillan, (2006).
Wolff, Janet. “Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture.” Cambridge: Polity. Press, (1990).
Sexton, Anne. “With Patricia Marx,” In “No Evil Star: Selected Essays, Interviews, and Prose.” Edited by Steven E. Colburn, 70-82. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, (1985). doi:10.3998/mpub.7385.
Bacchilega, Cristina. “Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies.” Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, (1997).
Carter, Angela. “The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories.” New York: Penguin Books, (2015).
Lacan, Jacques. “The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis.” New York: W.W. Norton, (1998).
Glapka, Ewa. “‘If You Look at Me Like at a Piece of Meat, Then That’s a Problem’ – Women in the Center of the Male Gaze. Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis as a Tool of Critique.” Critical Discourse Studies 15, no. 1 (October 16, 2017): 87–103. doi:10.1080/17405904.2017.1390480.
Horney, Karen. “Feminine Psychology.” New York; London: Norton, (1993).
Jordan, Elaine. “The Dangers of Angela Carter.” In “Critical Essays on Angela Carter.” Edited by Lindsey Tucker, 33-45. New. York; G.K. Hall; London: Prentice Hall International, (1998).
Irigaray, Luce. “This Sex which is Not One.” Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, (1985).
Bailly, Lionel. “Lacan: A Beginner's Guide.” Oxford: Oneworld, (2009).
Bettelheim, Bruno. “The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales.” New York: Vintage Books, (1977).
Hall, Caroline King Barnard. “Anne Sexton.” Boston: Twayne Publishers, (1989).
Gallop, Jane. “Reading Lacan.” Ithaca: Cornell University Press, (December 31, 2019). doi: 10.7591/9781501721601.
Halson, Jacqui. “Young Women, Sexual Harassment and Heterosexuality: Violence, Power Relations and Mixed-Sex. Schooling.” In “Gender, Power and Sexuality.” Edited by Pamela Abbott and Claire Wallace, 97-113. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, (1991). doi: 10.1007/978-1-349-21241-5_6.
Cashdan, Sheldon. “The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales.” New York: Basic Books, (1999).
Carter, Angela. “Notes from the Front Line.” In “On Gender and Writing.” Edited by Michelene Wandor, 69-77. London: Pandora Press, (1983).
Lee, Alison. “Angela Carter.” New York: G.K. Hall, (1997).
Day, Aidan. “Angela Carter: The Rational Glass.” Manchester: Manchester University Press, (1998).
Bowden, Peta, and Jane Mummery. “Understanding Feminism.” Stocksfield U.K.: Acumen, (2009). doi:10.1017/UPO 9781844654451.
Frayling, Christopher. “Inside the Bloody Chamber: On Angela Carter, the Gothic and Other Wierd Tales.” London: Oberon Books, (2015).
Sexton, Anne. “With Barbara Kevles,” In “No Evil Star: Selected Essays, Interviews, and Prose.” Edited by Steven E. Colburn, 83-111. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, (1985). doi: 10.3998/mpub.7385.
Rich, Adrienne. “Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose, 1979-1985.” New York: Norton, (1986).
DOI: 10.28991/esj-2020-01207
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2020 LIU Fenglin
