Summer Brief- About The Author Part 2. Angela Carter

Angela Carter

Best known for the bloody chamber Angela Carter is seen as one of the most influential writers within the last century. Carter's stories challenge female stereotypes turning the hero's and heroines such as in the Bloody Chamber where she has the mother of the bride rescue her daughter instead of the woman's two young sons such as in the original tale. Angelia tries to abolish the troupe type of women usually written in stories. She also focuses on both male and female  desire, however such as seen in the snow child a hetrosexual mans desire tends to be at the expense of female's desired. 

The violence and sexualisation of revised children's tale lead to outrage among many students and scholars who began to study it. However as Carter said, "I was taking ... the latent content of those traditional stories and using that; and the latent content is violently sexual."

And in this I see truth. Tales traditional contain violent retribution and constant imagery of the importance of female virginity and the impurity and evilness of women who are always hinted a being overtly sexual and as a result of this sinful. 

Within feminism angela has been seen as a controversial figure, embracing the works of marquis de sade, whose work carter deems as one of the first pieces of discourse to look at the liberation of the female sex as something more than procreation. Most feminist of the time argue that Marquis work commends those who use their sexuality for their own pleasure but punishes those who decided to have children and take on the traditional role of a wife.

Summary Of What I Found Out About Angela Carter

• Her work wasn't made to just startle or be controversial but to start a conversation about how sex and violence are such an integral part of traditional fairy tales.
• Angela pushed feminism and literature to delve deeper into the complexity of female sexuality as well as the way we as a society treat female sexuality.
• Angela spent a great deal of her life and her work trying to question what it is to be a woman and how the feminist ideals at the time needed to become more open to the idea of change and evolving within itself.
• Best Works: The Bloody Chambers, Night At The Circus and The Company of Wolves