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Feminism and Sexuality in Angela Carter's Shadow Dance And International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 04 Issue 01 January2017 Contextualizing Bluebeard Patriarchy through Grotesque: Feminism and Sexuality in Angela Carter’s Shadow Dance and Heroes and Villains Ms. Richa Arora Ph.D Scholar, Lovely Professional University Phagwara SUPERVISED BY Dr J.P. Aggarwal ABSTRACT The purpose of this research paper is to bring awareness to the students of post-colonial fiction of Angela Carter. She won Nobel Prize for literature for her revolutionary feminism and deconstruction of patriarchy. Carter gives the image of the wolf to characterize the monstrous quality of his Bluebeards in her novels. The wolf is a deadly; in each plot of her novels there is a deadly conflict between wolf and the dove. Carter uses all the elements of the Gothic novels of Mrs. Anne Redcliff to create an atmosphere of horror and supernaturalism. The forces of darkness are in tune with the threatening atmosphere of the novel symbolizing death and destruction. Carter has used this tool in her short stories The Bloody Chamber as well. Carter uses the images of mirror, snow, blood, moon, fire, forest and old castles to depict the presence of her Bluebeards symbolic of bloodthirsty traditional patriarchy. In this study the main issues of sexuality of women, gender discrimination are investigated in detail. KEY WORDS: Traumatic, Holocaust, Community, Barbaric, Trilogy, Strategy The themes of power, gender, and „female Gothic‟” (Munford 61). Gamble sexuality dominate the novels of Angela Carter; contends that “Her heroines cover the whole she belongs to the Second Wave of feminism and range from objectified victims to oppressors of wanted to launch a crusade against male others” (Gamble 68). Carter uses the technique hegemony. Carter has observed the role of the of deconstruction in the novels so as to explore oppressive and destructive power of patriarchy the complicity of myth, desire, and social which inhibited the growth of women in society. control. Carter uses the image of mask to depict Male domination is a reality in all societies and the character of Honeybuzzard who is the chief since antiquity man had been enslaving women villain of the novel. He is a demonic protagonist like the Bluebeards. The critics observe that belonging to the Gothic tradition and horror Angela Carter is a modern novelist appearing in films of Hollywood. Paul Magrs investigated the different guises in her novels. She has imitated stylistic techniques of Angela Carter employed Bakhtin‟s theory of grotesque and Barth‟s in her novels. He comments thus: “The philosophy of the carnivalesque. In her novels apocalyptic thresholds into personal there is a strange juxtaposition of levity and interrelations that feature so strongly in D. H. seriousness as we find in the novels of Dickens Lawrence‟s work have, in Carter‟s writing, and Fielding. Rebecca Munford observes that become invitations to deconstruction and “Carter‟s work sits uneasily in relation to both reinvention” (Magrs 185). Carter uses the Gothic and feminist discourses, especially as technique of disruption depicting hero as a they converge through the category of the villain, a boy is devolved into a speaking dog Available online:https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/ P a g e | 1101 International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 04 Issue 01 January2017 and a landscape subsumes a character. She gives myth of the Fall as it structures binary perceptions; protagonists and antagonists, Western representations of the and feminine and masculine. social order and sexual difference In this research paper Carter employs the (Bloom 4). technique of grotesque employed in her novels Throughout Carter has employed the Shadow Dance and Heroes and Villains. Mikhail images of dirt and vile life creating an uncanny Bakhtin investigated the positive elements of atmosphere in the novel. Carter gives the grotesque in his analysis of Romantic literature. background of the Nuclear War which led to the Bakhtin argues thus: unprecedented death and destruction. Three The grotesque theme of the mask societies survived the war; the Professors who is the most complex theme of folk protected the old culture and civilization. Then [carnival] culture. The mask is there were the Barbarians who survived and connected with the joy and lived outside the bunkers. They raided the reincarnation, with gay relativity Professors‟ villages for supplies and food. Then and with the merry negation of there were the Out People who were crippled by uniformity and similarity; it the radio activity of the nuclear war. As rejects conformity to oneself Marianne observes, “If time was frozen among (Bakhtin 39-40). the Professors” (Heroes 34), the Barbarians Bakhtin believes that the grotesque is function outside time, living their lives as an positive and may be used as a source of existential “peregrination which is an end in empowerment. Carter employed the Bakhtinian itself” (Heroes 107). theory of the “carnivalesque” in her novels. Heroes and Villains is set in the future Fellini used the images of carnival in his horror but the imagery of past gives new meaning to the films. In Fellini‟s films the grotesque is used to plot of the novel. Carter has taken images from depict the alienation of women from the real many sources: folklore, Gothic tales and other world. Carter was greatly impacted by the theory supernatural material to give an insight to the of Bakhtin and the horror films of Fellini. disintegration of civilization and the emergence Angela Carter‟s first novel Shadow Dance of the forces of destruction. Like The Magic (1966) depicts the tale of violence, gruesome Toyshop, the Bluebeard is powerful and the murder and insanity. Angela Carter declared that atmosphere is gruesome and uncanny. The the plot of the novel Heroes and Villains (1969) bloodshed, murders and savage lust for power deals with myth making in the “Barthesian sense controls all the events of the plot. Marianne loses of culturally constructed collective fictions or her mother, brother and father; she is raped and clichés” (Katsavos 12). Allan Bloom called sexually oppressed and is forced to run away Heroes and Villains as a Dystopian Romance: with her rapist. There are so many sensational The dystopian romance proves to episodes in the novel which continue the be a suitable vehicle for Carter‟s suspense. The plot of the novel Shadow Dance didactic allegory of the begins in an unconventional manner as Carter relationship between the sexes, an borrows the images from the Gothic tales and allegory, one might add, that uses mythical folk tales. The first scene takes place in the Utopian ideas of Jean-Jacques a bar where Ghislaine is introduced. Carter uses Rousseau in order to rewrite the the images of “the green tiles”, and “dropping of Available online:https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/ P a g e | 1102 International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348-6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 04 Issue 01 January2017 coins” to dramatize “a soft and dewy young girl” the novel is narrated by Morris who is one of the (Dance 2). She is vividly described as “a picture best friends of Honeybuzzard. Morris is also a book” possessing “soft baby cheeks”. Carter business partner of Honeybuzzard dealing in builds up an atmosphere of horror and terror of antique things. He makes living by collecting the tales of Edgar Allan Poe to describe the and selling old antiques and kitschy pieces from supernatural beauty of Ghislaine. Carter the old ruins and demolished and dilapidated introduces the triangle relationship of three houses and castles. Honeybuzzard is presented as persons: Morris, his friend Honeybuzzard and a lover and victim in the opening scene of Ghislaine. Honeybuzzard is presented as a Shadow Dance. Morris is a puppet of “decorative man” wearing a “very white, very Honeybuzzard; partner in business and criminal frilly shirt with sleeves as wide as swan‟s wings” activities. Morris feels guilty but lacks the moral concealed under his jacket (Dance 69). courage to resist the commands of Carter has presented Ghislaine with the Honeybuzzard. Morris is full of contradictions; ugly image of a scar symbolizing her sexiness, he wants to correct Honeybuzzard but Morris and mutilation of female body. Physically she “had always wanted but never defined” (Dance looks like a doll, appearing as a young and 177). His gruesome act of violence intensifies lovely painting hung on the wall or like a terror in the novel. Like Uncle Phillip, the title of beautiful picture of a book. Carter describes her the novel refers to “Honeybuzzard as a puppet thus: Ghislaine is highly sexually charged, “a master” (Peach 43). He controls the activities of burning child, a fiery bud” (Dance 3). Carter all the characters in the novel. Lindon Peach turns to the art of surrealism in painting her contends that “Honeybuzzard refers to the beauty and sexual body. Her childhood and characters affected by his violent acts as adulthood, beauty and innocence and its „shadows‟” (Peach 43). destruction, her scarred face is described in a Gamble observes that the name of manner characteristic of surrealism. The scared Honeybuzzard has wider implications. He is “an Ghislaine is a New Woman of Carter who dares irreconcilable combination of the sweet and to challenge the power structure of patriarchy. predatory” (Gamble 52). Carter has taken special Carter has used the “scar” image in a pains to portray his violent and malignant multidimensional way symbolizing the “mythical character. He is a sexual anti-hero. He is wound of female castration” deconstructing conceived as a monstrous villain of the Gothic patriarchal discourses on femininity and female novels.
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