“Black Venus” by Angela Carter: the character Jeanne Duval and the Aphrodite archetype

Abstract

This article intends to analyze the character Jeanne Duval from the short story “Black Venus” by the English author Angela Carter – found in the author’s book of short stories called Black Venus (1985). To do such analysis, the concept of the goddesses’ archetypes is used; especially Aphrodite’s, explaining what it means to personify this archetype and in which ways the character here studied personifies it. The goal, then, is to show how Jeanne Duval may be analyzed through Aphrodite’s archetype, highlighting the fact that she manages to use her characteristic of Aphrodite-Woman to emancipate herself and resist patriarchal society in her own way. Furthermore, this article uses as its theoretical framework As deusas e a mulher: uma nova psicologia das mulheres (1990) by Bolen and Mulher e Deusa: A construção do feminino em Fireworks de Angela Carter (2011) by Rapucci, among others.

Keywords

• black venus
• angela carter
• jeanne duval
• arquétipo de afrodite.