Angela Carter

When starting to research Angela Carter, I was instantly drawn in by the idea of:

• GOTHIC fairy tales
• enchantment!
• feminist themes

Before I even knew what any of her stories were about, images and thoughts rushed to my head with ideas and emotions, i felt so excited!

I instantly began to research Carter and her life!

LIFE

• Evacuated as child during the war to live in Yorkshire with her maternal Grandmother.
• Battled anxiety as a teenager.
• Attended university of Bristol where she studied English.
• Married in 1960 to Paul Carter but divorced in 1972.
• Relocated to Tokyo where she claims in her book 'Nothing Scared':

"I LEARNT WHAT IS WAS TO BE A WOMAN AND BECAME RADICALISED"

• She explored USA, Asia and Europe and spent the late 1970's and 80's as a writer in residence at universities.
• In 1977 she married Mark Pearce and had a son.
• Wrote her most famous novel 'The Bloody Chamber' which 

"IS ABOUT DESIRE AND DESTRUCTION AND THE SELF IMMOLATION OF WOMEN, HOW WOMEN COLLIDE WITH THEIR CONDITION OF ENSLAVEMENT"

• Two of her stories were made into films:
• The Company of Wolves
• The Magic Toyshop

MAIN THEMES IN CARTERS WORK

• The female form and the power of femininity. From my overview research of Angela Carter, I have an idea that her passion for exploring the feminine charm and beauty is a main theme that runs through the majority of her stories.
• Her stories seem to enchant me, I'm excited by Carters work and I really want to find out more about not only her life and herself as an author, but I want to discover more about the idea of feminist themes in her work. - The idea of femininity and using it in life is something that I've always been curious on, I'm unsure of the way that carter expresses her ideals in her work but that's something I'm really intrigued to find out!

WHAT INTERESTS ME?

• Carter's PASSION in her work, through her travelling and her experiences I feel that i'll be able to get a great range and eclectic mix of ideas and imagery that I can use to represent her!
• Unlike other authors I have explored, Carter doesn't have a lot of imagery with her work that will pre determine what my work might possibly follow to be like. (I say this but I hope when it comes to it, I would create work using my own styles and thoughts anyway, but it always helps to not have images that might influence me anyway)
• Her themes interest me, like i've said, i'm intrigued to find out about the female enchantment and how Carter writes about this.

STRUGGLES I MIGHT FACE?!

• I don't want my work to become to 'cliche' when exploring the topics of fairy tales and femininity, i feel like i could fall into a TRAP of typical imagery already relating to these topics, I'll have to be EXTRA wary of this!!