DEMYTHOLOGIZING BUSINESS: ANGELA CARTER’S REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERHOOD

Yıl 2017, Sayı: 28, 93 - 105, 31.10.2017

Mine Özyurt Kılıç

Öz

As a writer who deems herself involved in “demythologizing business”, Angela Carter fiercely deconstructs the debilitating myths of motherhood. For her, myths of motherhood turn women into mere agents of patriarchy who transmit conventional ideas about what it means to be a woman in patriarchal culture. Carter divorces herself from the patriarchal myths of motherhood and suggests that these myths are mere designs to produce generations of docile and subservient women. The aim of this article is to trace this theme of demythologizing motherhood in Carter’s fictional representations in line with her non-fictional writing. For this purpose, it will focus both on a selection of her most prominent fictional works and on her essays. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

Angela Carter, myths of motherhood, demythologizing

Kaynakça

• BACHELARD, Gaston. (2002). The Formation of the Scientific Mind: A Contribution to a Psychoanalysis of Objective Knowledge. (trans. Mary McAllester Jones) Manchester: Clinamen Press Ltd. CARTER, Angela. (1982). The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman. Suffolk: Penguin. (1985). Nights at the Circus. New York: Viking. (1985). “An Interview by Haffenden”. Novelists in Interview. Ed. John Haffenden. London: Methuen. (1990). The Magic Toyshop. London: Virago. Heroes and Villains. New York: Penguin, 1993. (1996). “Lulu”, The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera. London: Chatto & Windus. (1997). “The Mother Lode”, Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings. (ed.) Jenny Uglow. London: Penguin. (1997). “Notes from the Front Line”, Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings. (ed.) Jenny Uglow. London: Penguin. (1997). “Fat is Ugly”, Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings. (ed.) Jenny Uglow. New York and London: Penguin. (1997). “Notes from a Maternity Ward”, Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings. (ed.) Jenny Uglow. New York and London: Penguin. (1997). “Edward Shorter’s A History of Women’s Bodies”, Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings. (ed.) Jenny Uglow. New York and London: Penguin. (1997). “Eric Rhode: On Birth and Madness”, Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings. (ed.) Jenny Uglow. New York and London: Penguin. (2001). The Sadeian Women: An Exercise in Cultural History. New York: Penguin. (2009). The Passion of New Eve. London: Virago.
• DAY, Aidan. (1998). Angela Carter: The Rational Glass. Manchester and New York: Manchester UP. GOLDMAN, Emma. (1910). “The Tragedy of Woman’s Emancipation”.New York: Mother Earth Publ. Assn. JOUVE, Nicole Ward. (1994). “Mother is a Figure of Speech” in Lorna Sage. Flesh and the Mirror: Essays on the Art of Angela Carter. London: Virago. MAGLIN, Nan Bauer. (1980). “Don't never forget the bridge that you crossed over on”:The Literature of Matrilineage” in Davidson, Cathy N., and E. M. Broner. The Lost Tradition: Mothers and Daughters in Literature. New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co. PEACH, Linden. (1998). Angela Carter. London: MacMillan. RICH, Adrienne. (1977). Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: W.W. Norton