Key AO4/AO5: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Intertextuality = Blue
Critical Interpretations:
Merja Makinen: ‘Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and the Decolonisation of
Feminine Sexuality’ (1992)
Kari E Lokke: ‘Bluebeard and The Bloody Chamber: The Grotesque of Self-Parody
and Self-Assertation’ (1988)
Carter’s Style
‘The fluidity of Carter’s style draws one into her fictional world’ – Kari E. Lokke
‘I wanted a lush fin-de-siecle decor for the story…and a style that…utilises the
heightened diction of the novelette, to half-seduce the reader into this wicked
glamorous, fatal world’ – Carter
‘Carter’s voice is a voice of self-assertation. Carter offers a wry expression of
faith in the human ear’ – Kari E. Lokke
‘Carter was ‘deliberately drawing them out of shape…The monsters and
princesses lose their place in the old script, and cross forbidden boundary lines’ –
Sage
The Sadeian Woman (1979): An extended essay on pornography and the Marquis
de Sade, described as a ‘parallel text’ to TBC
Power and Gender
‘Carter envisages women’s sensuality simply as a response to male arousal’ –
Patricia Dunker
‘Carter’s characters are forever escaping socially, mentally and physically, the
traps laid by men’ – Jeff Vandermeer
‘They are not fearful of sex, just their sexual partners on them’ – Makinen
‘The Bloody Chamber is like a multifaceted glittering diamond reflecting and
refracting a variety of portraits of desire and sexuality’ – Helen Simpson
‘Despite Sade’s evident misogyny, he was nevertheless correct to treat all sexual
reality as political reality’ – Carter
‘An archeological investigation of gender representation, coupled with a set of
created attempts at subversion’ – Jago Morrison, Contemporary Fiction (2003)
Fairytales
‘Fairytales hold up a distorting mirror that enhances our petty guilts’ – Mantel
‘Fairytales clothe themselves in stereotypes and archetypes’ – Vandermeer
Intertextuality = Blue
Critical Interpretations:
Merja Makinen: ‘Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and the Decolonisation of
Feminine Sexuality’ (1992)
Kari E Lokke: ‘Bluebeard and The Bloody Chamber: The Grotesque of Self-Parody
and Self-Assertation’ (1988)
Carter’s Style
‘The fluidity of Carter’s style draws one into her fictional world’ – Kari E. Lokke
‘I wanted a lush fin-de-siecle decor for the story…and a style that…utilises the
heightened diction of the novelette, to half-seduce the reader into this wicked
glamorous, fatal world’ – Carter
‘Carter’s voice is a voice of self-assertation. Carter offers a wry expression of
faith in the human ear’ – Kari E. Lokke
‘Carter was ‘deliberately drawing them out of shape…The monsters and
princesses lose their place in the old script, and cross forbidden boundary lines’ –
Sage
The Sadeian Woman (1979): An extended essay on pornography and the Marquis
de Sade, described as a ‘parallel text’ to TBC
Power and Gender
‘Carter envisages women’s sensuality simply as a response to male arousal’ –
Patricia Dunker
‘Carter’s characters are forever escaping socially, mentally and physically, the
traps laid by men’ – Jeff Vandermeer
‘They are not fearful of sex, just their sexual partners on them’ – Makinen
‘The Bloody Chamber is like a multifaceted glittering diamond reflecting and
refracting a variety of portraits of desire and sexuality’ – Helen Simpson
‘Despite Sade’s evident misogyny, he was nevertheless correct to treat all sexual
reality as political reality’ – Carter
‘An archeological investigation of gender representation, coupled with a set of
created attempts at subversion’ – Jago Morrison, Contemporary Fiction (2003)
Fairytales
‘Fairytales hold up a distorting mirror that enhances our petty guilts’ – Mantel
‘Fairytales clothe themselves in stereotypes and archetypes’ – Vandermeer
