The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter)

Member Name: Squalls_Lover

Product:	The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
Date:	17/03/06 (4173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: engaging, rich, creative, unique, expressive

Disadvantages: none

Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber – Book Review

The Bloody Chamber published first in the UK in 1979, is a compilation of short stories written by Angela Carter. These pieces of short fiction are mainly Carter’s own versions of fairytales – transformed from the patriarchal tales they once were. Her aim was to uncover the unconscious patriarchal themes repeatedly found in folklores and fairytales, and to subvert these in order to shed light on the post-feminist perspective.

She draws the reader into the mind of the protagonist, who is usually female, with the personal, private feel of the first person narrative. Themes such as the suppression of female desires, females being objectified, confined to a domestic life are all critically challenged in this expose of society then and today.

You experience traditional patriarchal values being practiced on you as you are drawn in with Carter’s precise descriptions, engulfed in her expressions of the senses, erotic and distressing situations and you are made to realize the injustice of the way women are perceived to be and expected to behave.

Angela Carter mainly drew her source material from fairytales like “Beauty and The Beast” and folklores such as “The Erl-King” which comes from German and Scandinavian traditions. Fairytales and folklores are seen as harmless, innocent part of children’s upbringing in modern times, and some of the earlier versions of fairytales such as “Red Riding Hood” have been euphonized or whitewashed to make them more suitable for children. These fairytales and folklores used to be much more explicit, involving blood and violence and used to cater for children and adults alike.

Carter noticed the heavy patriarchal values in fairytales and folklores, which inconspicuously spread their message to children and socialised them to accept certain gender roles and associate particular things with either genders: “Men act – Women react” as is the case with “Sleeping Beauty”.
Carter presents her work in an obscure, scrambled manner, as the stories begin in no specific, chronological order, sometimes begin near the end or the middle of the original fairytales, the characters have no specific names, there is no knowledge of the era, but rough hints, no knowledge of location, it is very ambiguous for a good reason.

The nameless, timeless, lost feeling of the pieces of fiction lend it a quality of universality, it can be applied to anyone, anyone can relate to it and the situations can be symbolic of real life experiences, which further reinforces the universality of widespread patriarchy.

Angela Carter has also written “Nights at the Circus” which also deals with the same patriarchy versus feminism concept. She has also written many other such titles to awaken the general public, in times of social change (1970-1980) to adopting a new perspective on gender roles.

The Bloody Chamber was also the topic of study for AS students, and after studying the short pieces of fiction we attempted to write our own subverted folklore or fairytale as part of our coursework, lining it with the same post-feminist, magical realism themes that Carter used in order to challenge male dominance and express female freedom and power.

Carter’s subverted fairytales gained a lot of recognition and were successful in conveying their strong, powerful message to the masses, and she even made a film using the stories, which involved wolves, a symbol of male dominance and carnal desires, from The Bloody Chamber. All in all, her collection of stories are an invaluable, fantastic and creative symbol of post-feminist ideology.


I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it has changed my outlook on books and ways of writing and influenced my own writing too. I highly reccommend it.


10/10

Summary: An engaging, creative, expressive, fantastic symbol of post-feminist ideology