Women in Angela Carter's Stories——Taking The Bloody Chamber as an example

Angela Carter is an English novelist and journalist in 20th century known for her feminist, magical realism and Gothic works, which can be classified into many groups such as short fictions, poetry collections, dramatic writings, films adaptations and radio plays etc. To a certain degree, she is a"feminist exotic". Carter takes a very problematic place about pornography literature, which has been the long-standing debate among critics. As a result, some of her books are prohibited by the corresponding authority in China. However, Carter is one of the innovative feminist writers in that she quests for some extraordinary emancipatory erotics, beyond subjugation, beyond prejudice. Women under her writings are mostly controlled or manipulated by a patriarchal society in a phallocentric culture. Pornography, fairy tales and feminism"within and against the conventions of these genres"are all mixed together in the story of the Bloody Chamber. As a whole, The Bloody Chamber can also be treated as a collection of short stories in terms of a bigger narrative that deals with issues of feminism and metamorphosis rather than a set of individual and independent tales. Although each particular narrative deals with a different set of various characters, the oppressed female seeking liberation is the common theme and concept that is explored and expanded throughout the Bloody Chamber.