英美短篇小說(shuō)Unit10TheCompanyofWolves課件

1、Unit 10 Company of Wolves- Angela CarterOutlineAbout the authorWarm-up questionsTextual analysisCritical response and impactAbout the author-Angela Carter (1940-1992)Life experienceEnglish novelist and journalist Born in Eastbourne, England and suffered anorexia(厭食癥) as a teenagerBegan to work as a

2、journalist on theCroydon Advertiser after attendingStreatham & Clapham High School in south London, following in the footsteps of her father. Attended theUniversity of Bristolwhere she studied English literature Spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities, includi

3、ng theUniversity of Sheffield,Brown University, theUniversity of Adelaide, and theUniversity of East Anglia. Died of lung cancer in 1991Awards and honors The Magic Toyshop (1967) 魔幻玩具鋪，獲約翰勒維林里斯獎(jiǎng)Several Perceptions (1968)數(shù)種直覺(jué)，獲桑姆塞毛姆獎(jiǎng) Nights at the Circus (1984) 馬戲團(tuán)之夜，獲詹姆斯泰特布萊克文學(xué)獎(jiǎng) Undertook the work a

4、s jury of The Man Booker Prize(布克獎(jiǎng)) in 1983Ranked tenth in the list of “The 50 greatestBritish writers since 1945” in The Times in 2019Writing featuresFeminist writer: reworking of myth and fairy tale from a feminist point of view“transfigure.the classical fairy tale so that the story line remains t

5、he same but a different set of values is introduced.”“I am all for putting new wine in old bottles, especially if the pressure of the new wine makes the old bottles explode.”Sexual liberty of womenDivided critical opinions over the role of the erotic in Carters works: (1) Womens sexuality as a means

6、 to assert themselves (2) Close to pornography Exponent of magical realism (adding Gothic themes, violence and eroticism)Female GothicMagical Realism Magical realism,magic realism,ormarvelous realismis literature, painting and film that, while encompassing a range of subtly different concepts, share

7、 in common an acceptance of magic in the rational world. It is also sometimes calledfabulism,in reference to the conventions of fables, myths, and allegory. Of the four terms,Magical realismis the most commonly used and refers to literature in particular that portrays magical or unreal elements as a

8、 natural part in an otherwise realistic or mundane environment. Or in other words, it is a kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the “reliable” tone of objective realistic report. The realistic mingles with the unexpected

9、. The fantastic attributes given to characters are among the means that magic realism adopts in order to encompass the often phantasmagoric(幻影似的,變幻不定的) political realities of the 20th century. Important WorksNovelsShadow Dance(1966)The Magic Toyshop(1967)Several Perceptions(1968)Heroes and Villains(

10、1969)Poetry collectionsFive Quiet Shouters(1966)Unicorn(1966)Love(1971)The Passion of New Eve(1977)Nights at the Circus(1984)Wise Children(1991)Short story collectionsFireworks: Nine Profane Pieces(1974) also published asFireworks: Nine Stories in Various DisguisesandFireworksThe Bloody Chamber(1979

11、)The Bridegroom(1983) (Uncollected short story)Black Venus(1985) published asSaints and Strangers(US)American Ghosts and Old World Wonders(1993)Burning Your Boats(2019)Warm-up questionsHow do you understand the title “The Company of Wolves”?Analyze the characteristics of the girl in the last story o

12、f the novel.What do you think of the ending of this novel?Textual AnalysisBackground informationPlot summaryTheme analysisImage analysis Background Information The Company of Wolves is a short story by Angela Carter, one of the ten stories in The Bloody Chamber(orThe Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

13、). It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 byGollancz and won theCheltenham Festival Literary Prize. All of the stories share a common theme of being closely based uponfairy talesorfolk tales. However, Angela Carter has stated: “My intention was not to do versions or, as the American ed

14、ition of the book said, horribly, adultfairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories.” The anthology contains ten stories: The Bloody Chamber, The Courtship of Mr Lyon, The Tigers Bride, Puss-in-Boots, The Erl-King, The Snow Child, The Lady of the House of Love, The Wer

15、ewolf, The Company of Wolves and Wolf-Alice. The tales vary greatly in length, with thenoveletteThe Bloody Chamber being more than twice the length of any of the other stories, and more than thirty times the length of the shortest thevignetteThe Snow Child. The anthologys contents are also reprinted

16、 in CartersBurning Your Boats.Plot Summary The stories within The Bloody Chamber are explicitly based on fairy tales. And in terms of the story The Company of Wolves, it is a dramatic adaptation of the classical fairy tale Little Red Ridding Hood, and can be divided into two parts according to its c

17、ontents. The first part mainly focuses on wolves nature and inherent traits, with three relevant examples concerning werewolves for better portrayal and rendering, while the other part is just the adaptation for Little Red Ridding Hood, shaping a completely new image of the protagonist compared with

18、 the traditional one. In the beginning the wolf is described as an evil thing, and there were various tales about them. A woman has once been bitten in her own kitchen as she was straining the macaroni. Also, a girl looking after the sheep has once been pounced on, and finally it was those men with

19、rifles that scared him away, who rushed there right away on hearing the shouting for help. The second mini story in the beginning is about a witch who turned a whole wedding ceremony into wolves. She likes them coming to her cabin and howling their misery for it soothes her. Another mini story a you

20、ng lady and a man are about to have sex on their wedding night. As they get ready the husband says he needs to stop and relieve himself in the forest. The wife waits and he never returns. Off in the distance you can hear a wolf howling. She then figures her husband will never return and marries a ne

21、w man. With her new husband she bears children. Her first husband comes back and sees his wife. The first husband then becomes furious and bites the leg off the eldest child. Her second husband kills the wolf, who dies and looks exactly the same as he had when he disappeared, this makes her cry and

22、her husband beats her. Later we meet a girl walking in the woods. She was loved by everyone and feared nothing. She meets a handsome hunter who makes a deal with her; whoever can get to the grandmothers house first wins. If the hunter wins she owes him a kiss. She lets the hunter win because she wan

23、ts to kiss him. The hunter arrives at the grandmothers house tricking her. She is frail and sick. She holds a Bible in her hand for protection. He eats the grandmother, then waits for the girl. When she arrives she notices her grandmothers hair in the fire and knows he has killed her. He threatens t

24、o kill and eat her too, but she laughs and proceeds to seduce him. The last lines are See! sweet and sound she sleeps in grannys bed, between the paws of the tender wolf. Theme AnalysisThe development of feminism The two parts mentioned above are altogether four stories, representing the features du

25、ring the process of feminist movement, as well as the ideal image of both men and women in Carters eyes. The first story indicated the inequality of rights and status between men and women. Women could be easily attacked by wolves, and they needed mens help to keep themselves from getting injured. T

26、he second story vividly presented the twisted female images in traditional literary works. Witches were often associated with evil and wickedness, however, in this story, the suffering of betrayal contributed to her cruel behaviors, and the agony, sadness and resentment she has experienced won her m

27、uch sympathy, which formed a sharp contrast with traditional female literary images. The third story expressed Carters attitude towards feminism, not wanting it to run to any extreme. Different from those images above, the woman in this story was so brave that she married a second husband with no aw

28、areness of social constraints, fought against the wolf for protecting her children, and even cried for her first husbands death regardless of her second husbands fierce violence on her. Women need equal rights with men, but not far more beyond men. Balance was very important.The fourth story revealed her good wish of the equality and harmony between men and women. The little red