Journey towards the (m)other : myth, origins and the daughter's desires in the fiction of Angela Carter
Abstract
This study examines Angela Carter’s demythologising of origin myths and will
investigate the extent to which her fictions offer viable alternatives that allow for
productive representations of women and gender relations outside patriarchal paradigms.
In the first half of the thesis (Chapters 1-3), I will primarily focus on how several of
Carter’s earlier texts deconstruct existing mythical spaces, particularly the biblical
creation story in Genesis. The Genesis myth is central to socio-historical constructions of
gendered identities, and in itself, central to Carter’s imagination. She repeatedly returns
to this myth in her challenging of the ways in which patriarchal narratives construct
violent relations between self and other, specifically where ‘woman’ is situated as the
repressed other of male desires and fears. Alongside her demythologising of Genesis,
Carter deconstructs Freudian myths of sexual maturation, exposing where these also set
up a relationship of antagonism or enmity between the sexes. Although Chapter One will
explore how Carter attempts to revise these origin myths from a positive stance, Two and
Three will focus on the inherent difficulties faced by the female subject in her struggle
against patriarchal myths and their violent oppression of female autonomy. The second
half of the thesis (Chapters 4-6) will shift to an investigation of how Carter’s later texts
set up both possibilities and challenges for women when attempting to construct their
own narratives of origin. Through her problematising of matriarchal myths and feminist
fantasies of self-creation, Carter emphasises the need for confronting limitations rather
than celebrating transgressions as entirely liberating. The thesis will conclude, however,
with an examination of where Carter’s own attempts at remythologising opens up an
alternative space, or ‘elsewhere’, of feminine desires that allows for a refiguring of the
female subject as well as more reciprocal relations between the sexes.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Generic
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/
Collections
Except where otherwise noted within the work, this item's licence for re-use is described as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Generic
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.