Angela Carter's Pasts

This book focuses on Carter’s referencing of the past in her writing, from near-contemporary cultural phenomena and political debates, such as magical realism and 1960s feminism, through to Shakespeare and medieval poetry.

This book provides a fresh look at Angela Carter’s critical and intertextual engagements with the past.

Examining a broad range of Carter’s work (novels, short stories, poetry, as well as stage plays), the essays in this collection explore a stimulating selection of topics, including folk song, medieval literature, magic realism, and the occult. Frequently drawing on newly available archival material, the volume lays out the ways in which Carter wove allusions into her own narratives, creating a lively and challenging dialogue with the cultural materials of the past and present.

This volume will appeal both to scholars and students of contemporary women’s writing, critical theory, gender studies, and British fiction.