This dissertation will explore the way Philip treats puppets and masks as pseudo-sacred objects in order to maintain control in Angela Carter’s work The Magic Toyshop. To show the implications of the pseudo-sacred, I will use Violence and the Sacred by Rene Girard that examines the way primitive cultures are able to maintain order through particular religious beliefs and collective violence against a scapegoat. My critical reading of the text will look closely at how Philip uses the pseudo-sacred to build up the community. When the pseudo-sacred is finally called into question the community is threatened. Although Philip attempts to deflect blame onto the scapegoat Melanie, he fails as there is no social buy-in, leading to the destruction of the community. While the house is burned down destroying the puppets and masks, presumably along with Philip, the pseudo-sacred still has the chance of being perpetuated through Finn’s own obsession with power and control.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-04-25Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:30:48Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 rodrigues_ta_me_assis.pdf: 1079958 bytes, checksum: 5b519ada8b640b395ac2c16ad94bab3b (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / A presente dissertação pretende realizar uma análise da representação feminina no romance da escritora inglesa Angela Carter intitulado The Magic Toyshop (1967), observando sua relação com os elementos presentes na obra. Tendo em vista a importância desta representação nas obras carterianas, este trabalho pretende elucidar como se realiza a construção das personagens femininas e da ambientação (uma vez que esta também vai contribuir para a representação dessas personagens) da obra referida. As informações colhidas têm o intuito de esclarecer aspectos como, por exemplo, o estilo da autora, frequentemente associado à literatura fantástica e ao pósmodernismo, dialoga com a ideologia presente na obra, a saber, a crítica ao modelo patriarcal de sociedade, o qual muitas vezes impunha estereótipos e certos papéis sociais às mulheres. Assim, ao mesmo tempo em que sua obra se aproxima do caráter fantástico, Angela Carter não dissocia sua escrita do tecido social, criando, assim, um estilo de escrita único. Verifica-se, dessa forma, que assim como suas personagens, a autora, através da subversão, busca seu próprio espaço na Literatura / This dissertation intends to conduct an analysis of the female representation in Angela Carter’s novel The Magic Toyshop (1967), observing its relation with the elements present in the book. Considering the importance of this representation in the writer’s works, this dissertation aims to elucidate how the construction of female characters and the setting (since it will also contribute to the representation of these characters) of the referred narrative is done. The information obtained have the intention of clarifying certain aspects, such as the the dialogue between the author’s style, frequently associated with fantasy literature and post-modernism, and the ideology present in the novel: the critique of the patriarchal model of society, which often imposed stereotypes and social roles for women. Thus, at the same time that her work approaches the fantastic features, Angela Carter doesn’t dissociate her writing of the social context, creating an unique style of writing. One notices that, like her characters, the author seeks, through subversion, her own space in Literature

A repeated theme in the fiction of Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson is the use of domestic space as a tool for defining socially acceptable versions of female sexuality. Four novels that crystallize this theme are the focus of this dissertation: Winterson??s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) and Art and Lies (1994) and Carter??s The Magic Toyshop (1967) and Nights at the Circus (1984). Each chapter examines both authors?? treatments of a specific room in the house. Chapter II, "Parlor Games: Spatial Literacy in Formal Rooms," discusses how rooms used for formal occasions project a desirable public image of a family. More insidiously, however, the rooms protect the sexual order of the household, which often privileges male sexuality. Using the term spatial literacy to describe how characters interpret rooms, the chapter argues that characters with a high spatial literacy can detect not only the overt messages of these formal rooms, but also what underlies those messages. Chapter III, "Making Meals, Breaking Deals: Mothers, Daughters, and Kitchens," discusses the kitchen as the site of the production of domestic comfort. An analysis of who has primary responsibility for the production of comfort and whose comfort is privileged often reveals the power hierarchy of a given household. The chapter also examines the kitchen as a volatile space that can erupt with violence and the expression of repressed emotions and repressed sexuality. Finally, the kitchen is analyzed as a space of intimacy between mothers and daughters. Chapter IV, "Bedtime Stories: Assaulting Sexuality in the Bedroom," argues that the privacy of the adolescent bedroom is often disrupted by the surveillance of family members trying to control the sexual identity of the room??s occupant. The chapter also examines how social prescriptions encourage women to tolerate the interruption of their privacy. Each of the protagonists from these four novels has opportunities to learn about subverting the discursive constructions of domestic space, and several characters enact that subversion. This ability for subversion suggests the possibility for agency, a possibility that postmodernist thought often rejects, but one that Carter and Winterson allow.

Orientador: Cleide Antonia Rapucci / Banca: Altamir Botoso / Banca: Ana Maria Domingues de Oliveira / Resumo: A presente dissertação pretende realizar uma análise da representação feminina no romance da escritora inglesa Angela Carter intitulado The Magic Toyshop (1967), observando sua relação com os elementos presentes na obra. Tendo em vista a importância desta representação nas obras carterianas, este trabalho pretende elucidar como se realiza a construção das personagens femininas e da ambientação (uma vez que esta também vai contribuir para a representação dessas personagens) da obra referida. As informações colhidas têm o intuito de esclarecer aspectos como, por exemplo, o estilo da autora, frequentemente associado à literatura fantástica e ao pósmodernismo, dialoga com a ideologia presente na obra, a saber, a crítica ao modelo patriarcal de sociedade, o qual muitas vezes impunha estereótipos e certos papéis sociais às mulheres. Assim, ao mesmo tempo em que sua obra se aproxima do caráter fantástico, Angela Carter não dissocia sua escrita do tecido social, criando, assim, um estilo de escrita único. Verifica-se, dessa forma, que assim como suas personagens, a autora, através da subversão, busca seu próprio espaço na Literatura / Abstract: This dissertation intends to conduct an analysis of the female representation in Angela Carter's novel The Magic Toyshop (1967), observing its relation with the elements present in the book. Considering the importance of this representation in the writer's works, this dissertation aims to elucidate how the construction of female characters and the setting (since it will also contribute to the representation of these characters) of the referred narrative is done. The information obtained have the intention of clarifying certain aspects, such as the the dialogue between the author's style, frequently associated with fantasy literature and post-modernism, and the ideology present in the novel: the critique of the patriarchal model of society, which often imposed stereotypes and social roles for women. Thus, at the same time that her work approaches the fantastic features, Angela Carter doesn't dissociate her writing of the social context, creating an unique style of writing. One notices that, like her characters, the author seeks, through subversion, her own space in Literature / Mestre

當代童話故事《魔幻玩具舖》再現個體於成長過程中父權與社會機制所壓抑與消音，尤其強調於成長過程中的伊底帕斯情節期。當代童話作者呈現幻滅與殘缺的社會寫實，以提供讀者真實世界的不全以及社會的異化，藉此使讀者不安；透過詭異(the uncanny)的閱讀經驗，讀者認知於自己潛意識中的壓抑，以及社會機制的缺陷。在童話的結構中最重要的為奇幻之要素，奇幻重視顯露社會中的異化與顛覆理性的成規，其建築在現實即為取得讀者之信任，然而推展至非真的境地以混淆讀者對於現實的概念；透過傾覆讀者的認知，奇幻創造出在現實規則中的間隙(breach)以及破壞權威的法則；奇幻以及童話故事的努力皆於尋求到一個更美好的家庭遠景。 第一章介紹童話的文類架構以及與奇幻的緊密關聯。第二章著重於童話理論以及其架構呈現的欲望與空缺(lack)，讀者因認知到自我的伊底帕斯經驗與社會的異化而感到不安；奇幻要素則質問社會規則以及傾覆讀者對於社會秩序的概念。第三章為《魔幻玩具舖》的童話理論分析，以詭異的效果干擾讀者。第四章表明奇幻在《魔幻玩具舖》中的顛覆力量，模糊真與非真的界線以及在社會法規中創造出間隙開啟了被壓抑與壓迫發聲的可能性。最後一章以童話與奇幻要素顛覆父權社會機制作為總結。 / The modern fairy tale, The Magic Toyshop, copes with the issue of what is repressed and muffled under the social and patriarchal restraints through the growing process of a person, especially the oedipal stage. The modern fairy tale writer presents a disillusioned picture of reality, so as to provide the reader with the real conditions of deficiency and alienation in society and unsettle the reader. Through the reading process of the uncanny, the reader recognizes what has been repressed in his unconsciousness, and thus realizes the imperfectness of the society. In the structure of the fairy tale, the most important element is the fantastic which endeavors to reveal the reality of alienation and to subvert the rules of rationality. The fantastic is built on the real in order to gain the belief of the reader; however, it then develops to the realm of the unreal in order to blur the boundary between the real and the unreal. By upsetting the reader’s conception, the fantastic creates a breach in everyday reality and undermines authoritarian rules. The ultimate efforts of the fairy tale and the fantastic are made for the quest for a real homecoming. The first chapter introduces the genre of the fairy tale and its high relevance to the fantastic. The second chapter focuses on the theory of the fairy tale and its significance in revealing what is underneath the structure, desire and lack. The reader is unsettled by recognizing his / her own oedipal experience and the alienated reality. The element of the fantastic questions the everyday rules of the social order and disturbs the reader’s perception. The third chapter is the textual analysis of the fairy tale structure and its uncanny effect on the reader as reflected in Carter’s The Magic Toyshop. The fourth chapter is the analysis of the subversive function of the fantastic in Carter’s novel. The boundary-blurring and breach-making process opens a possibility for what is repressed and oppressed. The final chapter concludes that the fairy tale and the element of the fantastic subvert the authoritative society of patriarchy.