Intertextuality as Technique. Angela Carter 3301-LB2037-OG

Angela Carter's texts (fiction and non-fiction) are discussed as examples of heavily intertextual writing. Her novels (The Magic Toyshop, Love, The Passion of New Eve, Nights at the Circus) are read against the background of literary and cultural theory (Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Sigmund Freud, Andre Breton, Roland Barthes, feminist theories). Carter's allusions to literature and popular culture (William Shakespeare, the Surrealists, de Sade, Bram Stoker, the Gothic novel, Hammer Studio productions, Edgar Allan Poe, the Romantics, Hollywood movies, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Charles Dickens and others) are elaborated on. Her famous short story "The Bloody Chamber" and metafictional stories "The Quilt Maker", "Overture and Incidental Music for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream", and "The Souvenir of Japan" are read in the class. Students present their own readings of other Carter's stories they have chosen. Carter's cultural journalism (from The Sadeian Woman. An Exercise in Cultural History: chapter I on pornography; "Alchemy of the Word": an essay about the Surrealists; from Nothing Sacred: "Tokyo Pastoral"; "People as Pictures"; "Notes for a Theory of Sixties Style"; "The Bridled Sweeties"; "The Recession Style" and "The Rise of the Preppies"; "The Belle as a Business Person") is analysed. Carter's works for other media - "Vampirella" (a radio play); "Orlando Act I" (a fragment of the libretto); "The Company of Wolves" (a fragment of the screenplay with Neil Jordan) - are also close read.

Type of course

elective courses

Learning outcomes

A student will acquire advanced information about :Intertextuality as Technique. Angela Carter and will develop his/her analytical skills.Student will be able to discuss English postmodernism in the context of Freud's theory, the history of Hollywood cinema, the French Symbolist poetry and the oeuvre of Marquise de Sade.

Bibliography

Novels:
The Magic Toyshop, Love, The Passion of New Eve, Nights at the Circus.
Short stories: "The Bloody Chamber", "The Quilt Maker", "Overture and Incidental Music for 'A Midsummer's Night's Dream", "The Souvenir of Japan" and other stories.
Non-fiction:
From: The Sadeian Woman. An Exercise in Cultural History: chapter I on pornography; "Alchemy of the Word": an essay about the Surrealists; from Nothing Sacred: "Tokyo Pastoral"; "People as Pictures"; "Notes for a Theory of Sixties Style"; "The Bridled Sweeties"; "The Recession Style"; "The Rise of the Preppies"; "The Belle as a Business Person"
Dramatic works:
"Vampirella" (a radio play); "Orlando Act I" (a fragment of the libretto); "Company of Wolves" (a fragment of the screenplay with Neil Jordan)
Secondary Sources:
essays on the art of Angela Carter by: Lorna Sage, Sue Roe, Alain Day, Anna Katsavos, Nanette Alteveres, Beth A. Boehm; Nicole Ward Jouve
Additional material (handouts):
poems by: Edgar Allan Poe, W.B. Yeats, John Keats
excerpts of the texts by: Marquis de Sade; Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Andre Breton, Roland Barthes and other theorists
Suggested visual material:
Gone with the Wind
The Company of Wolves
(a) Hammer Studio horror film(s)
any adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula
any production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Additional information

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