Alfred Nobel University Journal of Philology (Jun 2025)
IN SEARCH OF ONE’S OWN IDENTITY: ANGELA CARTER’S SHORT STORY COLLECTION FIREWORKS
Abstract
The article examines the first collection of short stories by the esteemed British literary figure Angela Carter, titled Fireworks (1974), which has received limited attention in Western and Ukrainian literary studies. The focus of the study is the literary analysis of six stories by A. Carter: The Smile of Winter, A Souvenir of Japan, Flesh and the Mirror, Master, The Loves of Lady Purple, and Reflections. The topic of the study is the concept of feminine identity, which is crucial in the writer’s worldview. The paper aims to explore the mechanisms of functioning the characters’ identity, in particular, two distinct processes of its representation within the prose collection: a) the creation and b) the destruction. Both have been revealed at the intersection of the essence of the characters and their perception in the reader’s consciousness. The novelty of the research is determined by the sphere of corporeality, in the dimension of which the positive and negative sexual experience of male and female characters is contrasted in the literary texts. The chosen perspective of identity analysis incorporates an appropriate methodology grounded in feminist criticism and deconstruction. Through the literary analysis of Carter’s selected short prose, two aspects of the identity concept were identified: creation and destruction. The first one is realized in the discourse of the nameless protagonist- narrator’s autobiographical reflection (The Smile of Winter, A Souvenir of Japan, Flesh and the Mirror); meantime, the second one is reproduced in the discourse of sexual violence (Master, The Loves of Lady Purple, and Reflections). The characters’ identity transferred into the plane of corporeality is displayed from the vantage point of female subjectivity and is characterized by internal contradiction, fluidity, and the variability of authenticity. The multiplicity and diversity of the protagonists’ selves in the works are conveyed through two overarching tropes in Carter’s poetics – puppets and mirrors. The motif of puppets plays a pivotal role in revealing the essence of literary characters by undermining the integrity of the female/male personality and casting doubt on their authenticity, thereby extending the boundaries of the artistic text into the realm of the reader’s consciousness. This characteristic is present in five of the six narratives under analysis: A Souvenir of Japan, Flesh and the Mirror, The Smile of Winter, The Loves of Purple Lady, and Reflections. Conversely, the mirror, with its dual nature revealing simultaneous sameness and difference of reflection, evolves into a structurally formative element in Carter’s writing, embodying the internal principle of mirror asymmetry across various levels of textual structure. In the autobiographical discourse of feminine identity, namely, in A Souvenir of Japan and Flesh and the Mirror, the essence of the female protagonist is presented in the context of her relationship with the Others – a male lover and the metropolis – which are opposed to each other according to the principle of narrative presence / absence of a lover (Flesh and the Mirror / A Souvenir of Japan) and objectivity / subjectivity of the city (A Souvenir of Japan / Flesh and the Mirror). Instead, in Master, The Loves of Purple Lady, and Reflections, where the discourse of sexual violence shows the character relations through the paradigm of the master :: slave or executioner :: victim, the mirror asymmetry is determined by gender differences: male aggression dominates in the texts of Master and The Loves of Lady Purple, and female – in the stories The Loves of Lady Purple and Reflections.
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