Angela Carters Critique of Her Contemporary World

Politics, History, and Mortality

Yutaka Okuhata

• Publisher: Peter Lang Group
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783631830376
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783631833766
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This research sheds new light on Angela Carter's critique of her contemporary world, not only as a feminist and socialist but also as a political writer who lived through the twentieth century, an unprecedented period when even the meanings of life, death, and survivability changed drastically. The book examines Carter's portrayals of mortality in her nine novels through the lens of the Cold War and subsequent fears of nuclear catastrophe and sudden death, alongside the comfort blanket of the post-war welfare state. Focusing on the mutual dialogues between Carter and actual historical events, from Hiroshima and the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Thatcherism, the book aims to reconsider her oeuvre from a twenty-first century perspective.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright information
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter One The Silent Response to the “Insane World”
• Chapter Two Natural/Violent Death in the Twentieth Century
• Chapter Three Rousseau in a Post-Apocalyptic Context
• Chapter Four The Imaginary Arms Race and the Cultural Wreckage:
• Chapter Five Hollywood, Femininity, and the Cold War
• Chapter Six Carter, Thatcherism, and International Politics after Détente
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index