The grotesque: A subversive narrative technique of Angela Carter

Abstract

Angela Carter’s subversive narrative techniques help her establish an authentic narrative atmosphere in which she is able to demythologise and dephilosophise traditional codes. Among these techniques, the grotesque is considered to be the most groundbreaking one through which Carter rejects the classical body concept. By the grotesque, Carter is able to represent her sense of parodic and ironic depiction of the female body whose perverse and subversive qualities demolish “an ideal woman-image.” Therefore, it is possible to see the grotesque characteristics in Carter’s The Passion of New Eve. This study hereby explores the ‘grotesque’ as one of the major literary ways of the Carterian expression and explains how the ideal woman image is demolished when it passes through the filter of Carter’s politics of the grotesque in her The Passion of New Eve.

Keywords

• angela carter
• a subversive narrative technique
• the grotesque
• body
• the passion of new eve