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TATJANA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad DOI 10.5937/kultura1650195M UDK 821.111.09-31 Картер А. originalan naučni rad CULTURE,CLASSAND COUNTERFEITGENEALOGIES INANGELACARTER’S WISECHILDREN Abstract: Drawing on concepts from cultural studies and cultural materialism,AngelaCarter’snovelWiseChildrencanbeinterpreted asatextwherestrugglesbetweendominantandsubordinategroups are fought, illuminating thus the markedly leftist undertones of its narrative.CarterforegroundsthefamilyliesoftheHazardhousehold to destabilize the entrenched notions of paternity, culture and class infrastructure in 20th century Britain, exhibiting a postmodern awarenessofthemultiplicityoftruthanditsdistortionbytheculturally hegemonicgroups.Thenovel’snarrator,DoraChance,tellsherown andhersister’shistoryofexclusionfromtheHazardclan–theBritish theatricalroyalty–andtheirconsequentialrejectionbytheinstitutions ofeliteculture.HeraccountunderminesthefoundationsoftheBritish class system and the low vs. high culture dichotomy by divulging multiplemisattributedpaternitiesthatunderpinthesesocialconstructs. Keywords:AngelaCarter,culturalstudies,class,lies,patrilineality Introduction TheworkofthegreatlateBritishenchantressofthenoveland theprolificculturalandliterarycritic,AngelaCarter,hasbeen hailed as some of the most groundbreaking and substantive workoffictionandnonfictionwritteninthelatterhalfofthe 20thcentury.Aselfprofessedsocialistfeminist,AngelaCarter exploreddesire,genderidentityandrelationsofpowermainly throughfantasy,surrealismandmagicrealism,innovelssuch 195 TATJANA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ asShadowDance(1966),TheMagicToyshop(1967),Several Perceptions (1968), Heroes and Villains (1969), Love (1971), TheInfernalDesireMachinesofDoctorHoffman(1972),The Passion of New Eve (1977) and Nights at the Circus (1984), as well as in several shortstory collections, the most notable ofwhichisherrewritingofpopularfairytalesfromafeminist perspective, The Bloody Chamber (1979). Written in her idiosyncratic lurid lyricism, her work aims to demythologize patriarchal stereotypes of femininity and eroticism predicated on female submission, and while it has been praised for its paradigmshifting toward constructions of female agency, it has also been derided by feminist scholars for reinscribing misogynistimagesofthemasochisticpleasureoftheviolated femalebody,especiallyprominentinhercriticalexplorationof DeSade’swriting(Tonkin9).Notonlyherfeministjudgment, butalsohersocialistcredentialshavebeenquestionedoverthe years.Herleftwingleanings,althoughoftensubscribedtoin nonfiction and interviews1, remain largely unaccommodated byherpostmodernaestheticwhich,forthelargestpart,steers clearofovertpoliticsandcompletelybypassesMarxism’sgenre ofchoice–socialrealism.However,herfinalandbymanyher finestnovel,WiseChildren(1992),centeringonthelivesoftwo agedBrixtonchorusgirls,illegitimatedaughtersofaniconof Shakespeareantheatre,isperhapsthemostlucidexpressionof herleftistsentimentsthatvindicatesthe“bastard”childrenof theBritishclasssystem. WritingaboutthedemiseofclassnovelincontemporaryBritain, Dominic Head acknowledges that class in Britain “remains a topic fraught with contradictions and confusion” today, complicatedbytheriseofThatcher’sneoliberalisminthe1980s whichhasdonemuchtodemolishworkingclasssolidarity,while introducing a new, more maligned category of the underclass (ContemporaryBritishFiction232).HeadnotesthattheBritish novelofthe1980sand1990shasremainedlargelysilentabout theBritishclassdynamics,incontrasttotheprominentposition it held in the fiction of the previous decades, exemplified by, forinstance,RaymondWilliams’BorderCountry(1960),John Braine’sRoomattheTop(1957)ortheoriginalcampusnovel– LuckyJim(1954)byKingsleyAmis.However,itcanbeargued that,althoughwrittenintheplayfulpostmodernistidiomrather thanrealismofthepreviousgeneration,Carter’sWiseChildren ispossibletoreadasamorerecentexampleoftheBritishclass novel,oratleastanovelhighlyinformedbyclassconsciousness 1 In an interview for Marxism Today’s Left Alive, she proclaimed: “I’m interestedinjustice.(…).IsupposeIregardmyselfasjustarankandfile socialistfeministreally.”(n.pag) 196 TATJANA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ andtheconstructednatureofclassandculturewhichstemfrom patrilineality,i.e.one’spaternallineageandtheaccompanying inheritanceofproperty,rights,name,andclass.Carterasserted inoneofheressaysthat“allpostsixteenthcenturyEnglishart containsasubtextconcerningclass”,andnowhereinherfiction isthismorepalpablethaninWiseChildren(Carter,“Loveina ColdClimate”n.pag).WiseChildrenleavesbehindtheorgiastic, dystopianfantasiesthatdominatedCarter’searlierfictionand enters the gritty, but jovial materiality of South London, in a novelwhich,althoughrepletewithpostmodernstylisticminutae andoftenaskingofthereadertowillinglysuspendherdisbelief, unabashedlyexploresthematerialcircumstancesoftheBritish sociallife,aswellasthetightgripofpatriarchalrulethatextends fromthefamilydomainintotherealmofartandculture. WiseChildren,incontrasttomuchofCarter’searlierwork,is a distinctly British novel, with specific temporal and spatial coordinates.All the while balancing its exuberant plot on the tightrope of metafictional historiography and magic realism, Carterproducesatourdeforce,lifeaffirmingtaleofacentury oftheBritishtheatreandentertainment,aculturesodistinctly British that its enthusiasts and prime representatives in the formoftheHazardfamilyfailtoexportittoHollywood.Italso providesadiscerninglookintotheBritishclasssystem,which the novel suggests is rooted in compromised patrilineality, evidenced by the multiple false paternities in the Hazard household.Insteadofeulogizingthelostvaluesofhighculture intheArnoldiansenseof“thebestthathasbeenthoughtand said”(qtd.inBertens135),andratherthanlamentingtheloss of class and family belonging, Carter undermines these ideas throughthesardonicandsonorousvoiceofthe75yearoldDora Chance.Thenovelforegroundsthethemesofdoubling(multiple twinsparadetheplot),illegitimacy(bothofcultureandkinship), identityswitchingandnostalgiafortheEnglandgonebythatis juxtaposedtothemultiethnicpasticheandmasscultureofthe late20thcentury,thetimewhenDoraiswritingherpicaresque memoirs.Insodoing,thenarrativeexposestheliesinwhichthe discretecategoriesofclassandculturearerootedandcelebrates theconcomitantfusionofthelowbrowwiththehighbrow. TheProjectofBritishCulturalStudies BydelvingintothematerialityoftheChancesisters’lives,Wise Children performs in fiction a similar task to the one British culturaltheoristssuchasRaymondWilliams,RichardHoggart, StuartHallandTonyBennett,workinginthetraditionofcritical Marxism and cultural materialism, have taken up as their objectiveinthepastfiftyyearsincritiquingtheBritishsociety. 197 TATJANA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ Hence,itisnecessaryatthisjuncturetobrieflyoutlinetheproject ofBritishculturalstudiesinordertoilluminatethethemesand strategiesthatCarteremploysinWiseChildren.GraemeTurner (2003), writing the historical overview of the British cultural studiesasanacademicfield,notesthatforRaymondWilliams, thegodfatherofthediscipline,cultureisakeycategorybecause it links his two overarching interests – literary analysis and socialinquiry.Culturalstudiesbrokewiththeliterarytradition’s elitism and exchanged its claims of universal values for the analysis of the everyday and the commonplace. Its mission sinceconceptionhasbeentoerasethecategoryof“thenatural” by exposing historical forces behind those social relations of dominationweseeastheproductsofneutralevolution,focusing particularlyontheexperienceoftheworkingclassand,lately, on that of women and ethnic minorities as the historically oppressed categories. Its theoretical premises are indebted to critical European Marxism, and culture, mediated through ideology in the critical Marxist sense of the word, is viewed asthesitewheremeaningandsocialrealitiesareconstructed, ratherthanamereprojectionoftheeconomicbase.Therehas beenalongrunningdebateinculturalstudiesbetweenitstwo opposing currents: the structuralists (informed by continental philosophers, such as Althusser), who opt for the over determining role of ideology in the formation of subjectivity, andtheBritishhomegrownculturalistschool,championedby RaymondWilliams,StuartHall,E.P.Thompson2amongother