Angela Carter’s Postmodern Feminism and the Gothic Uncanny

Abstract

Angela Carter is a most controversial feminist writer in contemporary literary scene as her writing handles many gender and cultural issues in a unique subversive, even provocative way. Critics have discussed the political (in)efficacy of her feminist views and the significance of her revisionary writing strategy, but as to what really constitutes the unsettling power, the sharp edge of Carter’s writing, besides the enunciation of different feminist stances, critics have so far offered rather little in-depth analysis or new angles. With regard to this, the essay seeks to establish a critical model of reading Carter’s horrific power by bringing in, or rather shedding light on, a narrative tradition that Carter has employed all along—the Gothic tradition—to the existing critical perspectives on Carter’s writing, i.e., feminism, postmodernism, among others. The author argues that there exists an intricate dialectic between Carter’s feminism, postmodern practice, and her use of the Gothic, that her Gothic view underlies the horrific power of her speculative writing, and moreover, her writing exhibits a space which is not just postmodern, full of the joy of depthless play, but also a fearful space of the Gothic where the play is haunted by its play.