The point of departure for this study has been the attempt to turn into a method of critical inquiry a ‘passionate’ reading of Angela Carter’s (1940-1992) fiction alongside her critical essays, particularly the controversial essay on pornography The Sadeian Woman (1979). Two motifs appear to recur and repeatedly intersect in the writer’s works: that of desire - erotic and narrative - and that of the (not necessarily female) body - viewed as both the semiotic locus where it undergoes its own erasure and as a material reminder of an ‘other’ language. This already two-fold nexus further bisects, for the sustained interrelation of these two issues is staged by Carter simultaneously along the literary and the theoretical axes.Carter’s emphasis on the body, while recapitulating the 1970s debates of poststructuralist feminist circles, also anticipates a recent theoretical trend known as “corporeal feminism.” Carter’s adherence to a recent performative notion of gender production - bodying forth in such tropes as “mimicry,” “masquerade,” “cross-dressing” but also androgyny, hermaphroditism, and bisexuality - is often problematised through the fragmentation of her narrating subjects across the gender divide in both their subjectivities and their bodies. Unlike those postmodernist discourses implicitly endorsing an understanding of desire and the body as unspeakable and unrepresentable, Carter grants desire a productive, rather than re-productive (of the current arrangement) role in her fiction.This volume first investigates from a theoretical perspective the tensions and points of contact between postmodernism and feminism, the issues of ‘masquerade’ and "transvestism", the psycho-sexual history of the body, from Plato to “corporeal feminism”, psychoanalytical discourse on desire, desire in narrative representations, both with respect to the Oedipus and its possible disruption in feminine writing. Carter’s work is then discussed in general terms but still with a specific focus on the above specified issues, then by a scrutiny of the three ‘speculative fictions’ written during the 1970s, namely, the dystopian romance "Heroes and Villains" (1969), the dystopian picaresque science fiction, The Infernal Desire "Machines of Dr Hoffman" (1972) and "The Passion of New Eve" (1977).By engaging in a conversation with the feminist theoretical and literary debates of the past thirty years, the book comes to outline Carter’s literary project in terms of an erotics of writing as an interpretive approach which effectively accounts for the ‘subversive’ strategies of Carter’s postmodern writing.
Questo studio prende le mosse dal desiderio di voler trasformare in metodo critico la lettura 'appassionata' della narrativa e della produzione saggistica di Angela Carter (1940-1992). Nelle opere della scrittrice due sono le tematiche che piu' spesso ricorrono e si intersecano: quella del desiderio - erotico e narrativo - e quella del corpo (non necessariamente solo femminile) - luogo semiotico paradossale della propria (auto-)cancellazione ma anche residuo materiale di un 'altro' linguaggio. Questo duplice nesso si biforca ulteriormente attraverso la simultanea articolazione sui piani letterario e speculativo. Se la preminenza accordata al tema del corpo ricapitola il dibattito del femminismo poststrutturalista degli anni '70, essa anticipa pure una corrente recente nota con il nome di "femminismo della corporeita'". L'adesione di Carter a una moderna visione della natura performativa del genere sessuale - incarnata nei tropi della "mimicry", della "masquerade", del "travetitismo", ma anche dell'androginia, dell'ermafroditismo e della bisessualita' - problematizza la soggettivita' e la presenza corporea grazie alla frammentazione dei soggetti narranti al confine tra identita' sessuali in divenire. Discostandosi da un certo postmodernismo che ha teorizzato l'indicibilita' e l'irrapresentabilita' del corpo e del desiderio, Carter accorda al desiderio una funzione produttiva, piuttosto che ri-produttiva del regime discorsivo vigente. Il presente volume parte da una disamina teorica delle tensioni e dei punti di contatto tra postmodernismo e femminismo, delle problematiche relative alla "masquerade" e al "travestitimo", della storia psico-sessuale del corpo dal pensiero platonico al "femminismo" della corporeita', del discorso psicoanalitico sulla natura del desiderio, sia in riferimento al Complesso edipico, sia in riferimento ai suoi possibili rovesciamenti operati dalla scrittura femminile. Le opere di Carter sono poi discusse in senso generale, sia pure con lo sguardo concentrato sulle tematiche prima specificate; infine, si sono esaminati approfonditamente i tre romanzi 'speculativi' degli anni '70, segnatamente, il romance distopico "Eroi e cattivi" (1969), il romanzo picaresco di fantascienza "Le infernali macchine del desiderio del dott. Hoffman" (1972) e il romanzo distopico di fantascienza "La passione della nuova Eva" (1977). Attraverso un confronto serrato tra il femminismo teorico dell'ultimo trentennio ed il dibattito letterario ad esso sotteso, si e' inteso proporre un modello interpretativo del progetto letterario di Carter nel segno di una "erotics of writing" la cui efficacia euristica si e' testata sui romanzi che piu' scopertamente manifestano le strategie sovversive della scrittura postmoderna dell'autrice.
Mixing Memories and Desire: Postmodern Erotics of Writing in the Speculative Fiction of Angela Carter
NICOLOSI, MARIA GRAZIA
2004-01-01
Abstract
The point of departure for this study has been the attempt to turn into a method of critical inquiry a ‘passionate’ reading of Angela Carter’s (1940-1992) fiction alongside her critical essays, particularly the controversial essay on pornography The Sadeian Woman (1979). Two motifs appear to recur and repeatedly intersect in the writer’s works: that of desire - erotic and narrative - and that of the (not necessarily female) body - viewed as both the semiotic locus where it undergoes its own erasure and as a material reminder of an ‘other’ language. This already two-fold nexus further bisects, for the sustained interrelation of these two issues is staged by Carter simultaneously along the literary and the theoretical axes.Carter’s emphasis on the body, while recapitulating the 1970s debates of poststructuralist feminist circles, also anticipates a recent theoretical trend known as “corporeal feminism.” Carter’s adherence to a recent performative notion of gender production - bodying forth in such tropes as “mimicry,” “masquerade,” “cross-dressing” but also androgyny, hermaphroditism, and bisexuality - is often problematised through the fragmentation of her narrating subjects across the gender divide in both their subjectivities and their bodies. Unlike those postmodernist discourses implicitly endorsing an understanding of desire and the body as unspeakable and unrepresentable, Carter grants desire a productive, rather than re-productive (of the current arrangement) role in her fiction.This volume first investigates from a theoretical perspective the tensions and points of contact between postmodernism and feminism, the issues of ‘masquerade’ and "transvestism", the psycho-sexual history of the body, from Plato to “corporeal feminism”, psychoanalytical discourse on desire, desire in narrative representations, both with respect to the Oedipus and its possible disruption in feminine writing. Carter’s work is then discussed in general terms but still with a specific focus on the above specified issues, then by a scrutiny of the three ‘speculative fictions’ written during the 1970s, namely, the dystopian romance "Heroes and Villains" (1969), the dystopian picaresque science fiction, The Infernal Desire "Machines of Dr Hoffman" (1972) and "The Passion of New Eve" (1977).By engaging in a conversation with the feminist theoretical and literary debates of the past thirty years, the book comes to outline Carter’s literary project in terms of an erotics of writing as an interpretive approach which effectively accounts for the ‘subversive’ strategies of Carter’s postmodern writing.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
