Author Description
Widely Acknowledged As One Of The Most Important English Writers Of The Last Century, Angela Carter's Work Stands Out For Its Bawdiness And Linguistic Zest, Its Hospitality To The Fantastical And The Absurd, And Its Extraordinary Inventiveness And Range. Her Life Was As Vigorously Modern And Unconventional As Anything In Her Fiction. This Is The Story Of How Angela Carter Invented Herself - As A New Kind Of Woman And A New Kind Of Writer - And How She Came To Write Such Seductive And Distinctive Masterworks As The Bloody Chamber, Nights At The Circus, And Wise Children. Because Its Subject So Powerfully Embodied The Spirit Of The Times, The Book Also Provides A Fresh Perspective On Britain's Social And Cultural History In The Second Half Of The Twentieth Century. It Examines Such Topics As The 1960s Counterculture, The Social And Imaginative Conditions Of The Nuclear Age, And The Advent Of Second Wave Feminism. Author Edmund Gordon Has Followed In Angela Carter's Footsteps - Travelling To The Places She Lived In Britain, Japan, And The Usa - To Uncover A Life Rich In Adventure And Incident. With Unrestricted Access To Her Manuscripts, Letters, And Journals, And Informed By Interviews With Carter's Friends And Family, Gordon Offers An Unrivalled Portrait Of One Of The Twentieth Century's Most Dazzlingly Original Writers. This Sharply Written Narrative Will Be The Definitive Biography For Years To Come.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
How did Angela Carter construct her identity as a radical writer and woman against the backdrop of post-war British cultural shifts? Edmund Gordon, utilizing exclusive access to private archives and personal correspondence, reconstructs Carter's life to argue that her literary output was a deliberate act of self-invention. The biography maps her development from a young writer to a seminal figure of the twentieth century, situating her personal evolution within the broader context of the 1960s counterculture and the rise of second-wave feminism.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A chronological account of Carter's life in Britain, Japan, and the United States.
- Analysis of the social and imaginative conditions of the nuclear age.
- Examination of the creative origins of major works including The Bloody Chamber and Nights at the Circus.
Scope Limits
- The text focuses primarily on the biographical and cultural context rather than providing exhaustive literary theory or deconstruction of her entire bibliography.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Critics and scholars frequently cite this work as the definitive biographical account of Carter, noting the depth of research provided by the author's access to private papers. Readers often highlight the balance between intimate personal detail and the broader historical analysis of the era.
Page Count:
400
Publication Date:
2017-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press, Incorporated
ISBN-10:
0190626852
ISBN-13:
9780190626853
Biography
20th Century
Literary Criticism
Cultural History