The melodious tune ‘tale as old as time’ appended to
the contemporary 1991 Disney classic and adaptation, reverberates effectively
to suggest that there seems to be sufficient truth in this finer detail; Beauty and the Beast is a tale that is
reputedly a tale as old as time. The
Courtship of Mr. Lyon and The Tigers
Bride are both examples of how Angela Carter has re-imagined the Beauty and the Beast tale. The tale was
initially popularised within seventeenth century France by Madame
Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve and Jeanne-Marie Leprince De Beaumont, with the
tale they named La Belle et la Bête whose
love story has stood the test of time surviving the centuries and has been
transformed by Carter into what we would consider now as fantastic or magical realism.
Angela Carter used these classical fairy tales as
intertexts and foundations to manifest her diverse yet suggestive writing
styles; which Carter confirms “I was taking ... the latent content of those
traditional stories and using that; and the latent content is violently sexual”
(Carter in Simpson, 2006) and considering that “although most of them are
relatively short they’re crammed with an extraordinary range of ideas themes
and images” (Peach, 1998) which primarily explores the human psyche and
sexuality. The concept of the male and the female along with their gendered
differences highlight the postmodern issues which surround sexuality, which is
imminent in Carter’s choice of rich and elaborate language, themes, motifs and
evoking imagery. Carter’s The Bloody
Chamber symbolises the shift from adolescent to adult tale where she admits
she was drawn to “Gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror,
fabulous narratives that deal with the imagery of the unconscious” and
confesses “... sometimes when I read back my pages, I’m quite appalled at the
violence of my imagination” (Carter in Simpson, 2006).
Carter realised that
these traditional tales shared with every new generation would only contribute
and perpetuate the perennial ideology of patriarchy and the subordination of
and the inescapable fate of the female “I am indeed allowed to speak but only
of things that male society does not take seriously. I can hint at dreams, I
can even personify the imagination: but that is only because I am not rational
enough to cope with reality” (Carter, 1979[2006]). Carter saw this as her
opportune moment to explore the female transformations of considered typical
gendered conventions using postmodern literary techniques.
The melodious tune ‘tale as old as time’ appended to the contemporary 1991 Disney classic and adaptation, reverberates effectively to suggest that there seems to be sufficient truth in this finer detail; Beauty and the Beast is a tale that is reputedly a tale as old as time. The Courtship of Mr. Lyon and The Tigers Bride are both examples of how Angela Carter has re-imagined the Beauty and the Beast tale. The tale was initially popularised within seventeenth century France by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve and Jeanne-Marie Leprince De Beaumont, with the tale they named La Belle et la Bête whose love story has stood the test of time surviving the centuries and has been transformed by Carter into what we would consider now as fantastic or magical realism.
Angela Carter used these classical fairy tales as intertexts and foundations to manifest her diverse yet suggestive writing styles; which Carter confirms “I was taking ... the latent content of those traditional stories and using that; and the latent content is violently sexual” (Carter in Simpson, 2006) and considering that “although most of them are relatively short they’re crammed with an extraordinary range of ideas themes and images” (Peach, 1998) which primarily explores the human psyche and sexuality. The concept of the male and the female along with their gendered differences highlight the postmodern issues which surround sexuality, which is imminent in Carter’s choice of rich and elaborate language, themes, motifs and evoking imagery. Carter’s The Bloody Chamber symbolises the shift from adolescent to adult tale where she admits she was drawn to “Gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror, fabulous narratives that deal with the imagery of the unconscious” and confesses “... sometimes when I read back my pages, I’m quite appalled at the violence of my imagination” (Carter in Simpson, 2006).
Carter realised that
these traditional tales shared with every new generation would only contribute
and perpetuate the perennial ideology of patriarchy and the subordination of
and the inescapable fate of the female “I am indeed allowed to speak but only
of things that male society does not take seriously. I can hint at dreams, I
can even personify the imagination: but that is only because I am not rational
enough to cope with reality” (Carter, 1979[2006]). Carter saw this as her
opportune moment to explore the female transformations of considered typical
gendered conventions using postmodern literary techniques.
