Wiem Krifa

Within the scope of the literary field, hermeneutics is applicable to disclose the subtle textual implications and the authorial ideological orientations. Attempting to analyze Carter’s The Bloody Chamber from a hermeneutic perspective reveals the writer’s intents behind the use of various literary techniques. Metamorphosis, for instance, is deployed to study the male and female animal sides. Carter makes recourse to this technique aiming at divulging the equal and natural human instincts regardless of the gender orientations. The males’ transformation from a human shape to a wolf and vice versa connotes the animal side lurking beneath maleness. Carter rewrites the patriarchal fairy tales of Charles Perrault from a feminist postmodern angle in order to pay tribute to her female characters. Studying the story of Red Ridding Hood, we notice Carter’s innovation that makes her story different from Perrault’s original one. Her Red Ridding Hood character ensures her gender and sexual equa...

The Magic Toyshop (1967) is Angela carter’s second novel which permitted her to win the John Llewellyn Rhys price. In her novel, Carter experiments with many Feminist postmodern techniques that deploy and, at the same time, ironically debunk the cultural, mythic and religious heritage, aiming to revisit the past with a critical goal. Her speculative and fictitious writing have made it possible for her to question the internalized bygone cultural traditions, through a critical angle. Though the instances of irony are numerous in the novel, carter has put a great emphasis on the comic revision of the male patriarchal order. The writer’s prior objective through evoking the male power is to parody and criticize it, rather than to sympathize with it. While it is accurately presented as a dominant force, patriarchal power is comically overturned in The Magic Toyshop.  One prominent male character is Uncle Philip, whose task is of a highest importance, since he personifies the figure throu...

Nights at The Circus (1984) is a provocative novel, written by the British writer Angela Carter. It is a feminist postmodern work which combines fantastic events, to convey historiographical happenings. Contrary to the postmodern critics who advance the principle of death of history, feminist postmodernists tend to reassess history, from which they were excluded, by uniting fantasy and history. Historiographical metafiction is an attempt to rewrite history from a female critical angle. In Nights at The Circus, the narrative tracks back the past historical events of the 1890’s, with an endeavour to plan a more successful female future. Carter’s dealing with history implies a corrective political undertone that pays tribute to the marginalized females. The postmodern herstoricism is intermingled with fantasy to inscribe a more even history. As an example, we can take the character of Fevvers in Nights at The Circus who evokes Margaret Thatcher: The iron Lady. This example is used to i...

The feminist postmodern writers have always attempted to depict the struggles of underrepresented categories and reveal the injustice committed against them. In this context, Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus studies the condition of British women of the 19th century, mainly the prostitutes as an undermined category. Carter unveils the patriarchal misjudgment of prostitutes and puts forth a new view. She presents to her readers Ma Nelson’s brothel as a historical and cultural site rather than a promiscuous place. The economic necessity behind prostitution does not hinder the girls from positively engaging in political activism and contributing to rewriting the historical path of the new woman.