This research sheds new light on Angela Carter's critique of her contemporary world, not only as a feminist and socialist but also as a political writer who lived through the twentieth century, an unprecedented period when even the meanings of life, death, and survivability changed drastically. The book examines Carter's portrayals of mortality in her nine novels through the lens of the Cold War and subsequent fears of nuclear catastrophe and sudden death, alongside the comfort blanket of the post-war welfare state. Focusing on the mutual dialogues between Carter and actual historical events, from Hiroshima and the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Thatcherism, the book aims to reconsider her oeuvre from a twenty-first century perspective.
Chapter I. The Silent Response to the "Insane World": The Portrayal of the Sixties in Shadow Dance, Several Perceptions, and Love
Chapter II. Natural/Violent Death in the Twentieth Century: The Magic Toyshop as a Modern FairyTale
Chapter III Rousseau in a Post-Apocalyptic Context: The World after Atomic War in Heroes and Villains
Chapter IV. The Imaginary Arms Race and the Cultural Wreckage: Intertextuality in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
Chapter V. Hollywood, Femininity, and the Cold War: The Representation of Cultural Re-Education in The Passion of New Eve
Chapter VI. Carter, Thatcherism, and International Politics after Détente: The Representations of "Empires" in Nights at the Circus and Wise Children
Yutaka Okuhata teaches post-war English literature at Japan Women's University in Tokyo. He studied at Keio University, the University of Tokyo, and Birkbeck College, University of London. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of London in 2019.
