This fine Tuesday morning we started the lesson by reading an extract from a Gothic text and were asked to comment of its successes and failures. In fact this particular piece was from "The Raven" by Edgar Alan Poe, so there weren't many corrections to make. Here is a link to the poem - http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html
The next thing we had to do was to think about stereotypes that appear in traditional fairy tales and how they are opposed in Angela Carter's work, focusing on characters primarily. This is a list of what we came up with as a class :
Traditional Fairy tales :
* Virtuous, pure, beautiful women - a damsel in distress who must be saved
*Men are heroic and strikingly handsome
*Two dimensional characters
*Male protagonists are always morally correct
*Ugly women = Evil women
Angela Carter's stories :
*Women are virtuous to begin with but grow more sexually promiscuous as the story progresses
*Characters are tempted by materialistic objects
*Men are monstrous
* Three dimensional, "deeper" characters
*Women gain power
*Highlighting of mechanisms of patriarchy
* Fathers/father figures are evil or weak and materialistic
*Metamorphosis is present, gender roles and identity is not fixed
After this we were asked to look at a list of possible things that can occur or be seen in a fairy tale and point out the ones that would be seen in a Carter story, an example of this was having a strong female character.
We then looked at critic's opinions of Angela Carters work and commented of the similarities between the two, here is what I wrote -
"Both reviews point out that Carter is challenging preconceptions about the roles of men and women in society, her stories are far more dark and dangerous in order to successfully point out the problems and inequalities we face today.
Fairy tales ingest patriarchal values into their audiences from a very young age."
Now, for the HOMEWORK:
*Read the introduction of the "Bloody Chamber" (the book, not the story) and make one to two pages of notes.
*Read Bluebeard (which was handed out in class, if you weren't in here's a link to the story - http://childhoodreading.com/?p=20 ) and note down the things that Carter would object to and which enforce patriarchal values.
*Comment of this blog too please
Much love, Aleksandra
I found that whilst reading Bluebeard, I fully understood what Carter meant when she stated that she simply took the latent content of traditional stories. This is as, throughout reading I had the visual images of Carters Bloody Chambers as you could understand where she got them from.
ReplyDeleteEsmeralda ;)
Carter does certainly change the concept of traditional fairy tales into something quite unique and diverse. Her continuous use of sexual and feminist things does make the reader think of her true intentions. Possible messages she might be trying to convey is the inequality women used to and still face in the present day. That clip Mr Sadgrove showed us when those reporters were saying such things like "did you smash it" truly underlines the sexual descrimination women are subjected to and I believe Carter wanted to change these views, by using the fairy tale concept. This technique makes others indulge deeper into the author's intentions not just the story itself; however, the story does convey Carter's beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with both Esmeralda + Chris, however the patriarchal views in the retold version of "bluebeard" ("bloody chamber") seems to be coming from the mother (her saving of the daughter) + the Marque (over the woman + Key).
ReplyDeleteIt was clear through reading both the original and Carter`s version that Carter took the more feminist touch to hers which the other didn`t consider as much. It was interesting to contrast both versions.
ReplyDeleteTamsin
I think that Bluebeard is rather interesting and does in fact reinforce patriarchal values with the woman being dominated by the man and being saved by two also. Also the whole thing about the wives getting a Christian wedding and the widow living happily ever after echoes of the traditional fairy tales we all know. Basically telling us how the world should be. I found it interesting that Carter choose to use the mother of the wife rather than her brothers, most likely to show the fact that gender roles are not fixed.
ReplyDeleteAlso the Introduction to the Bloody Chamber was helpful in solidifying any loose ideas I had about the stories we've read so far along with getting me slightly prepared for stories to come.
Roman A.
The "Bluebeard" story contained many things which seem to enforce patriarchal values. The use of a stereotypical character in Bluebeard himself shows the dominance of men in society. For instance "Bluebeard often went away to war" and "had lots of wives"
ReplyDeleteAlso I imagine Carter wouldn't use line's similar to this:
"Don’t worry, husband,” said Bluebeard’s wife as she took the keys, “I’ll do as you say.”
The introduction gave me a further insight into the short stories I have already read and also extra relevant information about Angela Carter
Thanks for such a detailed blog..
;SONNY.