Gothic times : feminism and postmodernism in the novels of Angela Carter.

The problematic relationship between feminism and postmodernism
manifests itself, in contemporary fiction by women, as a conflict
between political and aesthetic practices which is ultimately waged upon
the ground of subjectivity. Angela Carter's novels offer an extended
exploration of subjectivity which utilises, in many ways self consciously, the ongoing theorisation of subjectivity and related
notions - notably desire, gender and power - which characterises
contemporary feminist and postmodernist philosophy.
This thesis offers a series of readings of Carter's novels which
traces their engagement with particular aspects of the theorisation of
subjectivity. It attempts to present Carter's novels as examples of how
the aesthetic and the political can to a certain extent be combined, and
of how feminist political practice can be both represented and
problematised in the postmodernist fictional text, while postmodernist
aesthetic practices are also exploited but problematised in and by that
exploitation.
The Introduction explores the relationship between feminist and
postmodernist theories of the subject, through a survey of theorists
from both 'camps' and a brief survey of contemporary women novelists,
before discussing the critical neglect of Carter's fiction. Chapter 2
explores more extensively the confluence of feminist, postmodernist and
psychoanalytic models of the subject and offers an exemplary reading of
a short story by Carter, in order to demonstrate certain stylistic and
thematic characteristics of her fiction. In particular, psychoanalytic
models of subjectivity are examined.
The succeeding two Chapters address Carter's early (pre-1972) novels
in order to explore the development of her fictional career from its
context of 1960s British fiction, and trace the progressive elaboration
of certain thematic preoccupations in their nascent form. Three further
Chapters individually address each novel in Carter's 'trilogy' so as to
demonstrate how each text explores a particular aspect of the
construction of the postmodern self.
The Conclusion offers a reading of Carter's fiction as extensively
engaged, both at a formal and a thematic level, with the deconstruction
of conventional notions of the self in order to expose the political
interests invested in those notions. Carter's last novel is also
addressed in the context of this discussion, as are the ways in which
Carter's fiction offers contributions to the feminist/postmodernist
debate as discussed throughout the thesis.
Throughout the thesis, extensive reference is made to critical and
theoretical works which elucidate or impinge upon the themes addressed
in Carter's novels, and Carter's own comments in interviews and in her
critical texts are also utilised.