I chose this particular chapter as the last to read in the book Angela Carter and the Fairy Tale, (as mentioned before, republished from Marvels & Tales), mainly because of the title. The indication towards the analysis of female metamorphosis and beastliness led me to think that it would serve some useful insight into my own chosen story of The Crane Wife. I have not yet studied Peter and the Wolf, neither the 'original' nor Carter's own version, so thought it might offer some new ideas or means of perspective to me.
'Carter's admiration for, appropriation of, and reinvention of wonder tales demonstrate her regard for realms of the fantastic, a category intrinsically connected with the grotesque.' In wonder tales, such as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Bluebeard to name but a few, the grotesque is a common method of featuring metamorphosing characters, unatural presences to our human world. the word 'grotesque' suggests something upsetting and wholy unnatural and undesired.
'The most elemental of the grotesque figures: the part-human, part-animal' such as the mermaid. As well as this, it can occur in anthropomorphic animals or monsters, like Beast. 'The combination of human and animal traits is... one of the most ancient grotesque forms.'
'Carter's wolf narratives both deconstruct received assumptions of gender and desire, and offer alternative possibilities for understanding and constructing desire and sexuality.' By using the grotesque form of the girl-wolf, Carter explores more the reactions of those around her (family, society) than the creature herself. In the way Peter interacts with her, Carter comments more on a larger patriarchal society. This is 'a tale in which the female grotesque, as a representation of otherness or difference, profoundly confuses Peter' which diverts from the typical wonder-tale's method of naturalizing addity and magic/ grotesque, etc. 'In [Peter's] reaction to encounters with the grotesque wolf-human, a girl-child, he subverts prevailing masculine conceptions of desire and sexuality, and offers an initiation story for the adult reader, not the child.'
'The female grotesque- the unfamiliar, the other - shatters his known
world and propels him first into fascination, ambivalence, and fear'
'Carter's narrative of Peter and the Wolf depends upon an aesthetic of the grotesque inflected by a feminist desire for transformation ... the female body is a crucial site of transformation' She has a 'feminist position regarding desire and sexuality' which is stated many times over by all theorists of her work. Bell contends that 'the woman writer involved in feminine writing will return to the body
which has been more than confiscated from her, which has been turned
into the uncanny stranger on display' - 'a display constructed by the
male imagination,' as Carter does when she reclaims narrative for her own, and for women in general, from the patriarchal constructions of previous wonder tales. Bell emphasizes that 'as a feminist writer, Carter particularly seeks to expose the constructed character of cultural representations of gender.' In all fairy tales and folk tales, the representations of gender are constructed by an authority, often a male or patriarchally-influenced one. Carter, as a feminine and feminist writer, chages this influence while also using it as a tool for analysis and discussion. 'Carter's appropriation of the wonder tale provides a genre within which she can deconstruct and subvert cultural mythology.' Much of this mythology comes in the form of attitudes to women, as we see. The 'ritualistic capture [of the wolf] hyperbolizes the brutality of masculine containment of the feminine,' as presented in opposition of Peter's subverted male-oriented attitude.
Bell specifies the difference between what constitues a tale (such as fairy, wonder, folk) and a short story. Namely; 'The tale does not log every day experience.' This comes from carter's on thoerisation. 'The tale, as she distinguishes it from the short story, is overtly interpretive, not descriptive of everyday life; it thereby offers and exploration of experience without presuming to convey either a projection or a reflection of lived experience.' Is is marked by the fantastic as opposed to the mundane, set in an imagined world, that none of us can claim to have more experience of than others. 'Carter constructs tales that carry the reader into unfamiliar daily worlds of the marvelous and the fantastic'
Reference:
Moss, B. (1998). Desire and the Female Grotesque in Angela Carter's "Peter and the Wolf". Marvels & Tales, 12(1), pp.175 - 191.
