Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" and the Decolonization of Feminine Sexuality

Author(s): Merja Makinen

Source: Feminist Review, No. 42, Feminist Fictions (Autumn, 1992), pp. 2-15
Published by: Palgrave Macmillan Journals
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ANGELACARTER'STHEBLOODY
CHAMBERAND THEDECOLONIZATION
OF FEMININESEXUALITY
Merja Makinen

Thelast thingyou'deverneedto dowith an AngelaCartertext is to send

it on an assertivenesstrainingcourse.Withher death (andno one has
spokenmoreeffectivelyon that than her last novel, WiseChildren,'a
brokenheartis nevera tragedy.Onlyuntimelydeathis a tragedy')the
obituarieshave started to evoke her as the gentle, wonderfulwhite
witchofthe north.But farfrombeinggentle,Carter'stexts wereknown
for the excessivenessof their violenceand, latterly,the almostviolent
exuberanceof theirexcess.Manya readerhas foundthe savagerywith
whichshe can attackculturalstereotypesdisturbing,even alienating.
PersonallyI found(andfind)it exhilarating- youneverknewwhatwas
comingnext fromthe avant-gardeliteraryterroristof feminism.
MargaretAtwood'smemorialin the Observeropens with Carter's
'intelligenceand kindness'and goes on to constructher as a mythical
fairy-tale figure: 'The amazing thing about her, for me, was that
someonewho looked so much like the Fairy Godmother... should
actuallybe so muchlike the FairyGodmother.She seemedalways on
the verge of bestowing something - some talisman, some magic
token . . .' LornaSage'sobituaryin the Guardiantalkedof her 'powers
ofenchantmentandhilarity,hergenerousinventiveness'whiletheLate
Show's memorialon BBC2 had the presentercalling her the 'white
witchofEnglishliterature',J. G. Ballarda 'friendlywitch',and Salman
Rushdie claimed 'English literature has lost its high sorceress,its
benevolentwitch queen. . . deprivedof the fairyqueenwe cannotfind
the magicthat willheal us'andfinishedby describingher as 'averygood
wizard,perhapsthe firstwizardde-ltlxe'.But this concurrenceof white
witch/fairygodmothermythologizingneeds watching;it is always the
dangerouslyproblematicthat are mythologizedin orderto makethem
less dangerous.As Carterherselfarguedstronglyin Sadeian Woman,'if
womenallowthemselvesto be consoledfortheir culturallydetermined
FemgngstRevgewNo 42, Autumn 1992

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 Angela Carter 3

lack of access to the modesof intellectualdebateby the invocationof

hypotheticalgreatgoddesses,theyaresimplyflatteringthemselvesinto
submission(a techniqueoftenused on themby men).'
Thebooksare not by somebenignmagician.The strengthsandthe
dangersofhertexts lie in a muchmoreaggressivesubversivenessanda
muchmore active eroticismthan perhapsthe decorumarounddeath
can allow. For me, the problematicsof Carter'swritingwas captured
withmorefranknesswhenNewSocialistdubbedher- wrongly,I think,
but wittily - the 'high-priestessof post-graduateporn'in 1987. For
Carter's work has consistently dealt with representationsof the
physicalabuseof womenin phallocentriccultures,of womenalienated
fromthemselveswithin the male gaze, and converselyof womenwho
grab their sexuality and fight back, of womentroubledby and even
poweredby theirownviolence.
Clearly,AngelaCarterwas best knownforher feministre-writing
of fairy-tales;the memorialsblurringstories with story-tellerstand
testimonyto that. TheBloodyChamberand OtherStories,publishedin
1979, is also midway between the disquietinglysarrageanalyses of
patriarchyof the 1960s and 1970s, such as TheMagicToyshop,Heroes
and VillainsvPassionofNewEve;andthe exuberantnovelsofthe 1980s
and early l990s, Nights at the Circusand WiseChildren.This is not to
arguethat the latter novelsare not also feminist,but their strategyis
different.The violencein the errentsdepictedin the earliernovels(the
rapes, the physicaland mental abuse of women)and the aggression
implicit in the representations,are no longer foregrounded.While
similareventsmayoccurin these twolast texts, the focusis on mocking
and explodingthe constrictiveculturalstereotypesand in celebrating
the sheerabilityofthe femaleprotagoniststo survive,unscathedby the
sexist ideologies.The tales in TheBloodyChamberstill foregroundthe
violenceand the abuse,but the narrativeitself providesan exuberant
re-writingof the fairy-tales that actively engages the reader in a
feminist deconstruction.I am therefore focusing my discussion on
Carter'sfairy-talesto allowa specificanalysisof Carter'stextualuses of
violenceas a feminist strategy,alongsidea case study assessing the
relationshipof sucha strategyto an assessmentofher readership.
Fairy-taleelementshad been presentin Carter'sworkas early as
TheMagicToyshopin 1967, but she didn'tcometo considerthem as a
specificgenre of Europeanliteratureuntil the late seventies. In 1977
she translatedfor Gollancza series of Perrault'sseventeenth-century
tales, andin 1979publishedTheBloodyChamber,her re-writingof the
fairy-talesof PerraultandMadameLeprincede Beaumont.In 1982 she
translated another edition, which includedthe two extra stories by
Madamede Beaumont,'Beautyand the Beast'and'Sweetheart'.Three
ofthe storiesfromBloodyChamberwererewrittenforRadio3,1andshe
tookpartin adaptingoneof them,'CompanyofWolves',into the filmby
Neil Jordan(1984).Finally,she editedthe ViragoBookof Fairy-Talesin
1990,andthe SecondViragoBookof Fairy-Talesfor1992.
Cartersawfairy-talesas the oralliteratureof the poor,a literature

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4 FeministReview

that spannedEuropeand one that encodedthe dark and mysterious

elementsof the psyche.She arguedthat even thoughthe seventeenth-
andeighteenth-century aristocraticwriters'fixed'these tales bywriting
them down and added moral tags to adapt them into parables of
instructionfor children,they could not erase the darkness and the
magicof the content.2She arguedthat bothliteratureandfolklorewere
'vast repositoriesof outmodedlies, whereyou can checkout what lies
used to be a la modeand findthe old lies on whichnew lies are based.
But folk-tales,unlikethe moredangerousmyths(whichshe tackledin
Passion of New Eve) were straightforwarddevices whose structures
couldeasily be re-writtenwith an informing,feministtag, where the
curiosityofthe womenprotagonistsis rewarded(ratherthan punished)
and their sexuality is active (rather than passive or suppressed
altogether).Carter'sRedRidingHoodin 'Companyof Wolves'is more
than a matchforher werewolf:
What big teeth you have . . .
All the better to eat you with.
The girl burst out laughing; she krsewshe was nobodynsmeat. She
laughed at him full in the face, she ripped off his shirt for him and flung it
into the fire, in the fiery wake of her own discarded clothing.
(Carter, 1979a: 118)

FeministcriticswhohavewrittenonBloodyChamberarguethat the old

fairy-tales were a reactionaryform that inscribed a misogynistic
ideology,without questioningwhether womenreaderswould always
and necessarilyidentifywith the female figures(an assumptionthat
Cartertoo shares in). They arguethat Carter,in using the form,gets
locked into the conservative sexism, despite her good intentions.
PatriciaDunckeruses AngelaDworkin'sPornography: MenPossessing
Womento argue that Carter is 're-writingthe tales within the
straitjacket of their originalstructures'and thereforereproducingthe
'rigidlysexistpsychologyofthe erotic.'AvisLewallenagrees,Carterhas
beenunableadequatelyto revisionthe conservativeformfora feminist
politics,and so her attemptsat constructingan activefemaleeroticare
badlycompromised - if not a reproductionof malepornography.
I would argue that, conversely,it is the critics who cannot see
beyondthe sexist binaryopposition.In orderto dothis, two issues need
to be addressed:whethera 'reactionaryformcanbe re-written;andthe
potentialperversityof women'ssexuality. The discussionof the first
issue will leadto an argumentfora feministstrategyofwritingandalso
of reading,andhencethrowsomelight on Carter'spotentialaudiences.
Firstly, the question of the form of the fairy-tale:is it some
universal,unchangeablegivenordoesit changeaccordingto its specific
historic rendition?Narrative genres clearly do inscribe ideologies
(thoughthat canneverfix the readings),but later re-writingsthat take
the genreand adaptit will not necessarilyencodethe same ideological
assumptions.Otherwise,one would have to argue that the African

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 Angela Carter 5

novels that have sought to decolonizethe Europeancultural stereo-

types of themselves,must always fail. One wouldneed to argue that
Ngugi'sor Achebe'snovels, for example,reinforcethe coloniallegacy
becausethey use the novel format.This is clearlynot true. Whenthe
formis used to critiquethe inscribedideology,I wouldargue,then the
form is subtly adaptedto inscribea new set of assumptions.Carter
arguedthat BloodyChamberwas 'a bookof storiesaboutfairystories'
(my emphasis) and this ironic strategy needs to be acknowledged.
Lewallencomplainsthat Dunckeris insensitiveto the ironyin Carter's
tales, but then agrees with her assessmentof the patriarchalinscrip-
tions, seeing the irony as merely 'blurringthe boundaries'of binary
thinking.Now I want to push the claim for irony a lot furtherthan
Lewallen,and argue that rather than a blurring,it enacts an oscil-
lationthat is itself deconstructive.
NaomiSchorin an essay on Flaubert'sironicuse of Romanticism,3
states that irony allows the author to reject and at the same time
re-appropriatethe discoursethat s/he is referringto. (i.e., Romanti-
cism is both present and simultaneouslydiscreditedin Flaubert's
texts). Schorhistoricizesthe continuitybetween nineteenth-century
and modernistironyas inherentlymisogynistic(becauselinkedto the
fetishizationof women)and calls fora feministironythat incorporates
the destabilizingeffects,whilerejectingthe misogyny.She cites Donna
Haraway'sopeningparagraphfrom 'A manifestofor cybergs':'Irony
. . . is a rhetoricalstrategyand politicalmethod,one I wouldlike to see
morehonouredwithin socialist feminism'.Utilizing this modelof an
ironic oscillation,I want to argue that Carter'stales do not simply
'rewrite'the old tales by fixingrolesof activesexualityfortheir female
protagonists- they 're-write'them by playing with and upon (if not
preyingupon)the earliermisogynisticversion.Lookagainat the quote
from'Companyof Wolves'given earlier.It is not read as a story read
forthe first time, with a positivelyimagedheroine.It is read,with the
originalstoryencodedwithinit, so that one readsof bothtexts, aware
of how the new one refersbackto and implicitlycritiquesthe old. We
read 'Thegirl burst out laughing;she knew she was nobody'smeat'as
referringto the earlierLittleRedRidingHood'spassiveterrorof being
eaten, before she is saved by the male woodman.We recognizethe
author's feminist turning of the tables and, simultaneously,the
damagedoneby the old inscriptionsof femininityas passive.'I am all
forputtingnew winein oldbottles,especiallyif the pressureof the new
wine makesthe old bottlesexplode'(Carter1983:69).
What should also not be overlooked,alongsidethis ironic decon-
structivetechnique,is the role of the reader;the questionof who is
readingthese tales. These are late twentieth-centuryadult fairy-tales
conscious of their own fictive status and so questioning the very
constructionsof roles while assertingthem. Whena younggirl resol-
utely chopsoff the paw of the wolf threateningher, and we read 'the
wolf let out a gulp, almost a sob . . . wolves are less brave than they
seem'- we are participatingin the re-writingof a wolSscharacteristics

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6 FeministReview

and participatingnot only in the humourbut also the arbitrariness.

'Nature'is not fixedbut fluidwithinfiction.
Carterwas insistentthat hertexts wereopen-ended,writtenwitha
space for the reader'sactivityin mind. She dislikednovels that were
closedworldsand describedmost realist novels as etiquettemanuals.
Andshe placedMarilynFrench'sTheWomenvs Roomin sucha category,
as well as the novels of Jane Austen. The fact that the formerwas
feminist didn'tlet it off the protocolhook.Bookswritten to show the
readerhowshe shouldbehave,werenot onlyan insult to the readerbut
also a bore to write. Carter'sown fiction seems always aware of its
playful interactionwith the reader'sassumptionsand recognitions.4
The Bloody Chamberis clearly engaging with a reader historically
situated in the early 1980s (and beyond)informedby feminism,and
raisingquestionsaboutthe culturalconstructionsoffemininity.Rather
than carryingthe heavyburdenof instruction,Carteroften explained
that forher 'a narrativeis an argumentstated in fictionalterms'.And
the twothingsneededforanyargumentare,somethingto argueagainst
(somethingto be overturned)and someoneto makethat argumentto (a
reader).
The questionthereforearises of whetherthis deconstructiveirony
is activatedif the readeris uninformedby feminism.The answermust
be, on the whole,no.BloodyChamberdrawson a feministdiscourse- or
at least an awarenessthat feminismis challengingsexist constructions.
MaryKelly,the feministartist,when challengedon the same question
of the accessibilityof her Post PartumDocumentto a wideraudience,
cogently argued, 'there is no such thing as a homogenousmass-
audience.Youcan'tmakeart foreveryone.Andif you'reenjoyedwithin
a particularmovementor organisation,then the work is going to
participatein its debates.'LucyLippardgoes on to suggestthat Kelly's
art 'extendsthe level of discoursewithin the art audiencefor all those
who see the art experienceas an exchange,a collaborationbetween
artistandaudience- the activeaudiencean activeart deserves.'(Kelly,
1984:xiii) I would argue that Carter'stales evoke a similar active
engagementwith feministdiscourse.
At first sight, such a conclusionmay soundodd,becauseif anyone
has taken feminist fictioninto the mainstream,it is Carter.But if a
feministwriteris to remaina feministwriter(ratherthana writerabout
women) then the texts must engage, on some level, with feminist
thinking.Thereis a wide constituencyof potentialreaderswho satisfy
the minimum requirementof having an awareness that feminism
challengessexist constructions.One does not need to be a feminist to
read the texts, far fromit, but if the reader does not appreciatethe
attackonthe stereotypesthenthe paybackforthat levelof engagement,
the sheercerebralpleasureandthe enjoymentofthe iconoclasm,will be
missing. And without the humouror the interest in deconstructing
cultural gender stereotypes,the textual anger against the abuse of
womenin previousdecadescanproveverydisquieting,evenuncomfort-
able,to read.To enjoythe humour- the paybackwith manyof Carter's

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 Angela Carter 7

texts - readers need to position themselves outside phallocentric

culture(at least for the processof reading).The last two novels,with
their lighter tone and more exuberantconstructionof interrelation-
ships, probablyhave the widest readershipof all. This mellowingof
textual aggression is not the only explanation for the increasing
popularityof Carter'slatertexts. HelenCarrnotesthat the mid-eighties
saw the arrivalof SouthAmericanmagicrealismon the Britishscene.
Fromthat moment,Carter'sreaderscouldassignher anarchicfusionof
fantasyandrealismto an intelligiblegenre,andso feel moresecure.
However,a fullerexplanationof Carter'spopularityneeds to take
accountofmarketinganddistribution:notjust accessibilityof ideology,
but accessibilityof purchase. Is the text on the general bookshop
shelves?Is it marketedundera feministimprint,thus signallingto the
potentialreader,for feministeyes only?Nicci Gerrardin her examin-
ation of how feministfictionhas impactedon mainstreampublishing,
argues that Carteralong with Toni Morrisonand Keri Hulme, have
beenmorewidelyreadbecausewhilestill remainingexplicitlyfeminist,
they have brought feminism out of its 'narrowself-consciousness'.
Narrowis always a difficultadjectiveto quantify.In Britain,Angela
Carter- like MorrisonandHulme- has beenpublishedby mainstream
publishersfromthe beginning.Thepublishinghistoryforherhardback
fictionruns:Heinemann1966-70, Hart Davis 1971-2, Gollancz1977-
84, Chatto&Windus198S92. As faras marketinganddistributionare
concerned,Carterhas always been presenteddirectlyto mainstream
audiences.
Both Passion of New Eve (1977) and Bloody Chamber(1979)
initiallycameoutunderGollancz's'Fantasy'series,placingthemwithin
a specificgenre, and the formerwas the first into paperback- being
issuedbyArrowin 1978.In 1981PenguinissuedBloodyChamberalong
with Heroes and Villains and The Infernal Desire Machine of Dr
Hoffman.In the same year Viragopublishedthe paperbackof Magic
Toyshop,followedby Passionof New Eve the year after,andFireworks
in 1987. The coversof both publishinghouses initially focusedon the
surreal,vaguelysci-fielements,Penguindoinga niceline in suggestive
plants,designedbyJamesMarsh.(Thankfully,Viragohas scrappedthe
originaltawdrycoverof the sci-ficoupleembracing,on Fireworks,for
the more tasteful modernistdepictionof a Japanese urban environ-
ment.)ViragoalsopublishedCarter'snon-fictionandcommissionedher
to edit collectionsof stories.
Nights at the Circusreacheda very large audience,in paperback.
Picadorpublishedit in 1985andit was takenup as a majorleadtitle for
Pan to promoteand distribute.Gerrardcites Virago'saveragefiction
print-runas 5,000-7,000in the secondhalf of the eighties.By the early
nineties,Nights at the Circushad achievedsales which exceededthis
figureten timesover.But eventhis successneedsto be placedin context.
It still onlyreachesabout20 per centof the sales fora numberone best
seller, such as MartinAmis'sLondonFields or Julian Barnes'sHistory
of the Worldin 10l/2Chapters.5

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8 Feminist Review

So Carter's involvement with feminist publishers came relatively

late in the day and seems to have stemmed from Virago's publishing of
her first piece of non-fiction, Sadeian Woman:An Exercisein Cultural
History(1979). Her fiction's reputation was made from mainstream
publishing houses and was reinforced by the awards of mainstream
literary prizes: the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Magic Toyshop;
Somerset Maugham Award for SeveralPerceptions;Cheltenham Festi-
val of Literature Award for BloodyChamber;and the James Tait Black
Award for Nights at the Circus.The shortlisting of the 1984 Booker
Prize caused a minor furore whenNightsat theCircuswas not included

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 Angela Carter 9

(it was wonthat yearby AnitaBrookner'sHoteldu Lac).Evenmanyof

the individualtales fromTheBloodyChamberfirst saw the light of day
in smallbut fairlyprestigiousliteraryreviewssuchas Bananas,Stand,
NorthernArts Review,and Iowa Review(the only academicjournal),
none of them notably feminist in their editorial policy. And 'The
CourtshipofMrLyon'was firstpublishedin the BritisheditionofVogue.
ClearlyI am arguingthat texts that employa feministirony,that
engageactivelywith a feministdiscourse,donot automaticallyconfine
themselvesto a feministghetto.Thereis a wide and growingaudience
for at least some kinds of feministfiction.But I am also arguingthat
exuberancesells better than discomfort.The more textually savage
books are publishedby Virago in paperback;the more magical by
Penguin;and two celebratoryones by the big-moneybidders,Picador
andVantage.
But what also sells in this commodifiedage of ours, as everyone
knows,is sex, and Carter'stexts have always engagedwith eroticism.
The quotesincludedby Penguinon the bookcoversinvariablymake
referenceto 'the stylish erotic prose','erotic,exotic and bizarre ro-
mance'.Andthis clearlyalsohas a lot to dowithherpopularity.In order
to counterLewallenandDuncker'sperceptionof her workas pornogra-
phic,I needto examinethe feministstrategiesof her representationsof
sexuality, particularlythe debate surroundingthe constructionof
sexualitywithinthe BloodyChamberstories.I believe Carteris going
some way towards constructinga complexvision of female psycho-
sexuality,throughherinvokingofviolenceas well as the erotic.Butthat
womencanbe violentas well as activesexually,that womencanchoose
to be perverse,is clearlynot somethingallowedforin the calculationsof
such readersas Duncker,Palmerand Lewallen.Carter'sstrengthis
preciselyin explodingthe stereotypesof women as passive, demure
cyphers.Thatshe thereforeevokesthe gamutofviolenceandperversity
is certainlytroubling,butto denytheirexistenceis surelyto incarcerate
women back within a partial, sanitized image only slightly less
constrictedthan the Victorianangelin the house.
Carterwas certainlyfascinatedby the incidenceof'beastmarriage'
stories, in the originalfairy-tales,and she claimedthey were inter-
national.In discussinghowthe wolvessubtlychangedtheirmeaningin
the filmof the story,she commentsthat neverthelessthey still signified
libido. Fairy-talesare often seen as dealing with the 'uncanny',the
distortedfictionsof the unconsciousrevisitedthroughhomelyimages-
and beasts can easily stand for the projecteddesires, the drive for
pleasureofwomen.Particularlywhensuchdesiresarediscountenanced
by a patriarchalculture concernedto restrict its women to being
property(withouta libidoof their own,let alonea mindor a room).6
In all of the tales, not only is femininityconstructedas active,
sensual, desiringand unruly- but successfulsexual transactionsare
foundedon an equalityandthe transfolmingpowersof recognizingthe
reciprocalclaimsof the other.Theten tales divideup into the first,'The
Bloody Chamber',a re-writingof the Bluebeardstory; three tales

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10 FemirwistReview

around cats: lion/tiger/pussin boots; three tales of magical beings:

erl-king/snow-child/vampire; and finally three tales of werewolves.
Each tale takes up the theme of the earlier one and commentson a
differentaspectofit, to presenta complexvariationoffemaledesireand
sexuality.
.
In the Finaleto SadeianWomanCarterdiscussesthe wordfleshin
. .

ts varlous meamngs:

the pleasuresofthe flesharelrulgarandunrefined7 evenwith an element

ofbeastlinessaboutthem7althoughfleshtints havethe sumptuous
succulenceofpeachesbecausefleshplus skinequalssensuality.
But,if fleshplus skinequalssensuality,thenfleshminusskinequals
meat.(Carter,1979b:137-8)

This motif of skin and flesh as signifyingpleasure, and of meat as

signifyingeconomicobjectification, recursthroughoutthe ten tales, and
stand as an internal evaluationof the relationshipshown.The other
recurringmotif is that of the gaze, but it is not always simply the
objectification
ofthe womanby maledesire,as we shall discover.
In each of the first three tales, Carterstresses the relationship
between women's subjective sesuality and their objective role as
property:younggirls get boughtby wealth,one way or another.But in
the feministre-write,Bluebeard'svictimizationof womenis overturned
andhe himselfis vanquishedby the motheranddaughter.
Thepuppetmaster,open-mouthed7 wideeyed,impotentat the last, saw
his dollsbreakfreeoftheirstrirlgs,abandonthe ritualshe hadordained
forthemsincetimebeganandstartto live forthemselves.(1979a:39)

In the two versionsofthe beauty-and-the-beast theme,the lion andthe

tiger signifysomethingotherthan man.sFora lionis a lionanda manis
a man'arguesthe firsttale. In the first,Beautyis adoredby her father,
in the second, gambledaway by a profligatedrunkard.The felines
signifyotherness a savageandmagnificentpower, outsideofhumanity.
In one story,womenarepampered,in the othertreatedas property,but
in bothcasesthe protagonistschoseto explorethe dangerous,exhilarat-
ing changethat comesfromchoosingthe beast. Bothstoriesare careful
to showa reciprocalawe andfearin the beasts, as well as in the beauty,
andthe reversalthemereinforcesthe equalityof the transactions:lion
kisses Beauty'shand, Beauty kisses lion's;tiger strips naked and so
Beautychoosesto showhim'thefleshlynatureofwomen'.In bothcases
the beasts signifya sensualitythat the womenhavebeentaughtmight
devourthem, but which,when embraced,gives them power,strength
and a new awarenessof both self and other.The tiger'sbridehas her
'skinsof a life in the world'lickedoff to revealher ownmagnificentfur
beneaththe surface.
Each of the three adolescentprotagonistshas been progressively
strongerandmoreaggressive,andeachhas embraceda sensualityboth

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 Angela Carter 11

sumptuousand unrefined.With the fourthstory, 'Puss in Boots',the

cynicalpussviewinghumanloveanddesirein a lightheartedcommedia
dell'arterendition,demythologizessex with humourandgusto.
Ifthewildfelineshavesignifiedthe sensualdesiresthatwomenneed
to acknowledgewithinthemselves,the three fictivefiguressignifythe
problematicsof desire itself. 'Erl-king'is a complexrenderingof a
subjectivecollusionwith objectivityand entrapmentwithin the male
gaze.Thewomannarratorbothfearsanddesiresentrapmentwithinthe
birdcage.Theerl-king,wearetold,doesnotexistin nature,butin a voidof
her own making (hence his calling her 'mother'at the end). The
disquietingshiftsbetweenthe twovoicesofthe narrator,firstandthird
person,representthe twocompetingdesiresforfreedomandengulfment,
in a tale that delineatesthe vew ambivalenceof desire. 'Snowchild'
presents the unattainabilityof desire, which will always melt away
before possession.No real person can ever satisfy desire's constant
deferral.'Ladyof the Houseof Love',with its ladyvampire,invertsthe
genderrolesof Bluebeard,with the womanconstructedas an aggressor
with a manas the virginvictim.But with this constructionof aggressor,
comesthe questionof whethersadists are trappedwithintheir nature:
'cana birdsing onlythe songit knowsor can it learna new song?'And,
throughlove and the reciprocaltheme - he kisses her bloodyfinger,
ratherthan her suckinghis blood- this aggressoris able to vanquish
ancestraldesires,but at a cost.In this tale the overwhelmingfearof the
cat tales, that the protagonistmightbe consumedby the othernessof
desire,is givena newtwist.
The three wolf stories also deal with women'srelationshipto the
unruly libido,but the werewolfsignifies a stranger,more alienated
othernessthan the cats, despite the half-humanmanifestations.Old
Grannyisthewerewolfinthefirsttale,andthe girl'svanquishingofheris
seen as a triumphofthe complaisantsociety(the symbolic)that hounds
the uncanny.The tiger'sbridehad been a rebelliouschildand chooses
desireoverconventionalwealth;nowwehavea 'good'childwhosacrifices
the uncannyfor bourgeoisprosperity.In the secondtale, 'Companyof
Wolves',the list ofmanifestationsofwerewolves,the amalgamofhuman
andwolf;symbolicandimaginary,concludeswiththe secondRedRiding
Hoodstory.Thistime the wolfdoesconsumethe granny,but is outfaced
byRedRidingHood's awarenessthatinfreelymeetinghissensuality,the
libido will transform'meat'into 'flesh'.After the fulfilmentof their
mutualdesire,he is transformedintoa 'tender'wolf,andshe sleepssafe
betweenhis paws.Thefinaltaleis ofa girlraisedbywolves,outsideofthe
socialtrainingofthe symbolic.Alludingto Truffaut'sL'Enfantsauvage,
LewisCarrolland Lacan,the younggirl growsup outsidethe cultural
inscriptionsandlearnsa new sense of self fromher encounterswith the
mirrorandfromthe rhythmsofherbody.She learnsa sense oftime and
routine.Finallyher pitybeginsto transformthe werewolfDukeintothe
worldof the rational,wherehe toocanbe symbolized.
ReadingCarter'sfairy-talesas her female protagonists'confron-
tations with desire,in all its unruly'animalness',yields rich rewards.

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12 FeministReview

However,PatriciaDunckersimplisticallyreadsthe tales as 'allmenare

beasts to women'and so sees the female protagonistsas inevitably
enactingthe roles of victimsof male violence.Red RidingHoodof the
twicementionedquotation,accordingto her 'seesthat rapeis inevitable
. . . anddecidesto stripoff,lie backandenjoyit. Shewantsit really,they
all do.'Reading'TheTiger'sBride'Dunckerclaimsthe strippingof the
girl'sskin 'beautifullypackagedand unveiled,is the ritualdisrobingof
the willingvictimof pornography'. Becauseshe readsthe beastsas men
in furryclothing,DunckerarguesCarterhas been unableto paint an
'alternativeanti-sexist language of the erotic'because there is no
conceptionof womenas havingautonomousdesire.But Carteris doing
that. Readthe beasts as the projectionsof a femininelibido,and they
becomeexactly that autonomousdesire which the female characters
needto recognizeand reappropriateas a partof themselves(deniedby
the phallocentricculture).Isn'tthat whyat the endof'Tiger'sBride'the
tiger'slickingrevealsthe tiger in the womanprotagonist,beneaththe
culturalconstructionofthe demure?Lookedat again,this is not readas
woman re-enactingpornographyfor the male gaze, but as woman
reappropriating libido:
And each stroke of his tongue ripped off skin after successive skin, all the
skins of a life in the world, and left behind a nascent patina of shining
hairs. My earrings turned back to water and trickled down my shoulders;
I shrugged the drops off my beautiful fur. (Carter 1979a: 67)

Lewallendoes read the beasts as female desire, but argues that the
female protagonistsare still locked within a binary prescriptionof
either 'fuckor be fucked'.However,I wouldargue she too bringsthis
binarydivisioninto the discussionwith her, when she asserts 'Sade's
dualism is simple: sadist or masochist,fuck or be fucked,victim or
aggressor'.She uses a readingof Carter'sreadingof Sade,in Sadeian
Womanto informthe storiesandargues,wronglyI think,that Carteris
putting forwardwomanas sexual aggressor(Sade'sJuliette), rather
than victim (Sade'sJustine). I wouldsuggest that Carteris using de
Sadeto argueforawiderincorporation offemalesexuality,to arguethat
it toocontainsa wholegamutof'perversions'alongside'normal'sex. My
mainproblemwithLewallen'sdualismis that it incorporatesno senseof
the dangerouspleasuresofsexualityandthat is notnecessarilysimplya
choice between being aggressor or victim. Her 'fuck or be fucked'
interpretationignoresthe notionofconsentwithinthe sado-masochistic
transaction,andthe questionofwhois fuckingwhom.Pat Califia'snovel
of lesbianS&Millustrateshow it is usuallythe masochistwhohas the
real control,whohas the powerto call'enough'.Whileaskingfora more
mutualsexual transaction,Lewallendismissesthe masochismin 'The
BloodyChamber',as toodisturbing,'myuneaseat beingmanipulatedby
the narrativeto sympathisewith masochism'.
Now I don't deny that it is disturbing(except,perhaps,for the
readerwho is a masochist).And if it was the only representationof

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 Angela Carter 13

female sexuality, I wouldbe up in arms against its reinforcementof

Freudianviews. But it is only one of ten tales, ten variant represen-
tations.Moreover,the protagonistretractsherconsenthalfwaythrough
the narrative,whenshe realizesherhusband,Bluebeard,is planningto
involveher in realtortureand a 'snuff denouement.Up until then, the
adolescentprotagonisthas not denied her own interest in the sado-
masochisttransaction:
I caught myself, suddenly, as he saw me, my pale face, the way the
muscles in my neck stuck out like thin wire. I saw how much that cruel
necklace became me. And, for the first time in my innocent and confined
life, I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruptionthat took my breath
away. (Carter, 1979a: 11)

Throughoutthe narrative,this 'queasycraving'forthe sexual encoun-

ters ('likethe cravingsofpregnantwomenforthe taste ofcoalorchalkor
taintedfood')is admittedbythe narrator,until she discoversthe torture
chamberand the three dead previouswives. Then she removesher
consentand,with the help of an ineffectualblindpiano-tuner7and her
avengingmother,Bluebeardis defeated.OfcourseI wouldnot denythat
the tale, throughits oscillationwiththe originalfable,alsocommentson
male sexual objectification and denigrationof women.Clearlymuchof
its representationdrawsonthis - butthe maleviolatoris alsoportrayed
as capturedwithin the constructionof masculinity(just as the female
vampirewas trappedwithin hers). The protagonistcan recognizehis
'stenchof absolutedespair. . . the atrociouslonelinessof that monster'.
Carter'srepresentationsof sexualityare more complexthan many of
her criticshave allowed.
Maggie Anwell, in an excellent analysis of how the film The
Companyof Wolveswas unable to get past the binary divide of
victim/aggressor,does argue for a more complexpsychic reading of
female sexuality represented in the tale. She suggests that the
confrontation between'represseddesire'(wolf)andthe 'ego'(RedRiding
Hood)ends with the ego'sability to acceptthe pleasurableaspects of
desire,whilecontrollingits less pleasurableaspects.
The story, with its subversion of the familiar and its structure of
story-telling within a stozy suggests an ambiguity and plurality of
interpretations which reminds us of our own capacity to dream . . .
Not only does the material world shift its laws; we experience our own
capacity for abnormalbehaviour (Anwell, 1988: 82).

Are we to call only for constructionsof sexualitywith whichwe feel at

ease, at this pointin time,still withina phallocentricsociety?Especially
whenall we haveto inscribeourownsexualidentitiesfromare cultural
constructions?I wouldarguethat just as it is the debatesaroundthe
marginalizedand pathologized'perversities'that are breakingup the
phallocentricconstructionof sexuality,so Carter'stexts are beginning

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14 FeministReuiew

to sketch the polymorphouspotentialitiesof femaledesire.These new

representationsmay not fit into comfortablenotionsof sisterhoodbut
they may well proveliberatingall the same. And Carterclearlyknew
what she was doing. In her forewordto her edition of the Perrault
stories she caricaturesthe seventeenth-centuryrationalisticresponse:
The wolf consumes Red Riding Hood;what else can you expect if you talk
to strange men, comments Perrault briskly. Let's not bother our heads
with the mysteries of sado-masochisticattraction. (Carter, 1977: 17-8)

Until we can take on boardthe disturbingand evenviolentelementsof

femalesexuality,we willnotbe ableto decodethe fullfeministagendaof
these fairy-tales.Wewill be unableto recognizethe representationsof
drivesso far suppressedby ourculture.
Yet this, of course, is why it is so enormously important for women to
write fiction as women - it is part of the slow process of decolonising our
language and our basic habits of thought. I really do believe this . . . it has
to do with the creation of a means of expression for an infinitely greater
variety of experience than has been possible heretofore,to say things for
which no language previously existed. (Carter, 1983: 75)

With the death of Angela Carterwe have lost an importantfeminist

writerwhowas ableto critiquephallocentrismwith ironicgusto andto
developa widerandmorecomplexrepresentationoffemininity.Neither
the mystificationof her gentleness nor the assumptionthat represen-
tatiotrsof sexuality are locked into pornography,should blind us to
Carter'sworks'attemptsto decolonizeourhabitsof thought.If we need
to expandourcriteriato encompassherachievementsX then so muchthe
better.

Notes
MerjaMakinen lectures in English literature and history of ideas at Middlesex
University. She is the co-author,with LorraineGamman, of Female Fetishism:
A New Look,forthcomingfrom Lawrence & Wishart.

1 Later published together with another of her radio plays, as ComeUnto These
YellowSands.
2 For all that I will go on to question Patricia Duncker's reading of Carter's
representation of female sexuality, she does give a good historical reading of
fairy-tales, with much more analysis than Carter'sversion.
3 The European literary movement of the last quarter of the eighteenth
century, which stressed the claims of passion and emotion and a sense of
mystery in life.
4 'I try when I write fiction, to think on my feet - to present a number of
propositionsin a variety of differentways, and to leave the readerto construct
her own fiction for herself from the elements of my fiction'(Carter, 1983).
5 I am indebted to Helena Blakemore's forthcoming doctoral thesis 'Reading

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 Angela Carter 15

strategies:problemsin the studyof contemporary Britishfiction',Middlesex

University.
6 ArguablyChristinaRossetti'spoetryR especiallythe notoriousGoblinMarket,
employeda similardevicein the nineteenthcenturyandEllenMoersargued
fora traditionof'femalegothic'tales that suchstrategiescouldbelongto.
7 That Duncker argues the blind piano-tunerrepresents castrated male
sexuality,referringto Rochesterin JaneEyre,situatesherfeministstrategy.
She doesnot incorporatelater psychoanalyticfeministreadings,that could
allowCarter'sprotagonistto elect for a man with whomshe will not be the
objectofthe malegaze,as she waswithherhusband.

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