Redefining Female Desire: Angela Carter's <i>Bloody Chamber</i>

Abstract

This article focuses on the debate about the nature and representation of female sexual desire, on the trend to follow men patterns, who often would have been identified in pornography, involving Angela Carter’s work. This author has analyzed the issue of female desire in The Sadeian Woman, re-evaluating the use of pornography in "moral" sense, ie reversing the fundamentals and misogynistic stereotypes about the differences between the sexes. In contrast, scholars such as Andrea Dworkin believe pornography inextricably linked to the subjugation and humiliation of the female body, while Carter, starting from the work of De Sade, reconfigures the ideas at the base of the imaginary of erotic, putting pornography "in the service" of feminine instincts liberation. Among Carter’s works that gave rise to more debates and discussions is The Bloody Chamber, a collection of rewriting fairy tales in which some stories such as The Tiger's Wife and The Company of Wolves had provoked critical reactions. This article analyses some passages of those tales, combining them with the ideas expressed by the author in her famous essay, demonstrating the originality and unconventionality of her interpretation of female desire, subject to misunderstanding and disputes, but strongly appreciated in recent years .

Keywords

• Angela Carter
• desiderio femminile
• pornografia
• female desire, pornography, De Sade