The British writer Angela Carter got famous for her short stories and her examination of "The Sadeian Woman". In her writing she often deals with sexuality and power. The story "The Bloody Chamber" is one of ten short stories in Angela Carter’s collection "The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories", which was published in 1979. In this particular story she reworks the fairy tale of Blue Beard and transforms it into a feminist retelling by combining it with results from "The Sadeian Woman". With this work she wants “not simply to point out what is wrong with conventional representations of gender; she is concerned at once to offer different representations, different models” (Day 134). Thus her short stories are full of variety and different topics and take place in a Gothic atmosphere. Carter herself claimed that she followed a realism because she wanted to fulfill the desire of the people to believe the word as fact (Day 134). Therefore she uses topics which are familiar to everybody. Sexuality in a wider sense is one of the predominant ones in her stories. It shows a “sexuality that is situated beyond cultural borders and might therefore be more ‘natural’ than the conventional notions of sexual identity” (Gruss 212). However, the sexuality in "The Bloody Chamber" often seems strange, abhorrent and even disgusting. Thus, especially the sexuality serves to create a Gothic atmosphere by the help of different means. In the following paper I want to examine how this is done by use of three Gothic concepts: The haunting, abject and grotesque, and the uncanny.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Haunting
3. Abject and Grotesque
4. The Uncanny
5. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Themes
The primary objective of this work is to examine how Angela Carter employs three specific Gothic concepts—the haunting, the abject and grotesque, and the uncanny—to transform traditional depictions of sexuality and marriage in her short story "The Bloody Chamber" into a feminist, Gothic narrative.
- Analysis of the "haunting" imagery within the framework of traditional marriage and female disempowerment.
- Exploration of how "abject" and "grotesque" elements are utilized through detailed, often brutal descriptions of sexual interaction.
- Investigation into the "uncanny" nature of the protagonist’s discoveries regarding her husband’s true character and history.
- Examination of the role-reversal concerning the female protagonist's mother and its subversion of traditional fairy tale tropes.
Excerpt from the Book
3. Abject and Grotesque
The concepts of the abject and grotesque are closely connected in Gothic theory but nevertheless don’t represent the same thing. Both are concerned with otherness but in a slightly different sense. In the OED the word abject means despicable, of low status, degraded, downtrodden etc. This doesn’t really explain the understanding which I will be concerned with. Julia Kristeva includes in her book Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection a good presentation of her perception of abjection. It is mainly about thingness and materiality which is important for Gothic horror (Hurley 138). It is “what does not respect borders, positions, rules” (Kristeva 4). “The body’s secretions and excretions are abject, breaching the boundary between the (seemingly self-contained) body and the external world” (Hurley 138). Thus it is for example blood, flesh, saliva, sperm and wounds which are considered abject. Moreover things which “trouble a culture’s conceptual categories” (Hurley 139) are abject because they are outside the understanding and at a “place where meaning collapses” (Hurley 139). We try to repress these unwanted things because they remind us of “our origin and fate – birth and death, the wet bloody suchness of material existence” (Hurley 144). It brings us back to a point where we are nothing but animals. We put effort in it to remain a thinking subject and thus are scared of abjection (Hurley 144). Although the abject might be horrifying, it is always combined with fascination. “One cannot bear to look upon it, but cannot bring oneself to look away from it either” (Hurley 138). More examples for the abject are sexual shift, identity changing and other metamorphoses (Hurley 139). Additionally situations in which we are confronted with “states where man strays on territories of animal” (Kristeva 12) are regarded abject. I would argue that sexual interaction is abject, too, because it combines the most typical animalistic behaviors: sex and violence.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces the author Angela Carter and the themes of her collection, outlining the central thesis: the use of three Gothic concepts to portray sexuality in "The Bloody Chamber".
2. The Haunting: This section analyzes how the concept of haunting is applied to marriage, illustrating the historical erasure of female identity and the psychological entrapment of women.
3. Abject and Grotesque: This chapter defines these two Gothic concepts and explains how they manifest through the brutal, animalistic depictions of sex and the objectification of the bride in the story.
4. The Uncanny: This part explores the psychological impact of the uncanny, specifically focusing on the protagonist's discovery of her husband's secret life and the subversive strength of her mother.
5. Conclusion: This chapter synthesizes the previous analyses, reinforcing that the story's Gothic elements serve to expose the dangers of traditional, old-fashioned marriage norms.
Keywords
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber, Gothic fiction, sexuality, the haunting, the abject, the grotesque, the uncanny, feminist literature, marriage, Blue Beard, gender roles, psychoanalysis, materiality, power dynamics.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this research paper?
The paper examines how Angela Carter integrates three specific Gothic concepts—the haunting, the abject/grotesque, and the uncanny—into her short story "The Bloody Chamber" to critique traditional concepts of marriage and sexuality.
What are the primary themes discussed?
The central themes include feminist reinterpretations of fairy tales, the historical subjugation of women in marriage, the aestheticization of the bizarre, and the blurring of boundaries between the known and the unknown.
What is the main objective or research question?
The objective is to analyze how the inclusion of Gothic elements transforms the story into a critical, feminist work that challenges conventional gender representations and sexual power dynamics.
Which scientific methods are applied?
The work employs a literary analysis approach, utilizing psychoanalytical and cultural theory (referencing Freud, Kristeva, and various Gothic scholars) to interpret the text's symbols and narrative structure.
What topics are covered in the main section?
The main sections cover the concept of hauntings in relation to marital bondage, the abject and grotesque nature of sexual interactions within the story, and the psychological concept of the uncanny regarding secrets and role reversals.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Key terms include Angela Carter, Gothic fiction, the abject, the grotesque, the uncanny, feminist literature, and the deconstruction of traditional marriage roles.
How does the author interpret the mother's role in the story?
The author argues that the mother’s arrival and her active intervention (shooting the marquis) subvert the traditional, passive role of women in fairy tales, representing a strong, independent female force that threatens patriarchal order.
In what way does the paper describe the sexual content in "The Bloody Chamber"?
The paper describes the sexual content as "abject" and "grotesque," arguing that Carter uses these descriptions to create a Gothic atmosphere that is simultaneously repulsive and fascinating to the reader.
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- Juliane Strätz (Autor:in), 2011, Horribly sexy. How sexuality becomes gothic in Angela Carters "The Bloody Chamber", München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/279459
