Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children

Angela Carter’s feminist appropriation of William Shakespeare’s plots in Wise Children (1991) is well recognized. This article proposes that the novel also makes sustained references to the life and work of James Joyce and thereby provides a crucial but overlooked counterpoint to Carter’s use of Sha...

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Main Author: Davison, Sarah
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32505/
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author Davison, Sarah
author_facet Davison, Sarah
author_sort Davison, Sarah
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description Angela Carter’s feminist appropriation of William Shakespeare’s plots in Wise Children (1991) is well recognized. This article proposes that the novel also makes sustained references to the life and work of James Joyce and thereby provides a crucial but overlooked counterpoint to Carter’s use of Shakespeare. It sets her simultaneous play with these two literary forefathers in the light of her thoughts on intertextuality, Bardolatry, and biological and cultural legitimacy, as well as her observations in “Envoi: Bloomsday.” Thus, it argues that Carter both invokes Joyce’s liberating example as an adaptive writer in the burlesque tradition to support her own feminist critique of patrilineal models of artistic inheritance and literary transmission, and rejects the institutionalization of Shakespeare’s plays as high art rather than popular entertainment.
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spelling nottingham-325052020-05-04T17:23:05Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32505/ Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children Davison, Sarah Angela Carter’s feminist appropriation of William Shakespeare’s plots in Wise Children (1991) is well recognized. This article proposes that the novel also makes sustained references to the life and work of James Joyce and thereby provides a crucial but overlooked counterpoint to Carter’s use of Shakespeare. It sets her simultaneous play with these two literary forefathers in the light of her thoughts on intertextuality, Bardolatry, and biological and cultural legitimacy, as well as her observations in “Envoi: Bloomsday.” Thus, it argues that Carter both invokes Joyce’s liberating example as an adaptive writer in the burlesque tradition to support her own feminist critique of patrilineal models of artistic inheritance and literary transmission, and rejects the institutionalization of Shakespeare’s plays as high art rather than popular entertainment. Oxford University Press 2015-11-15 Article PeerReviewed Davison, Sarah (2015) Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children. Contemporary Women's Writing . ISSN 1754-1484 http://cww.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/11/18/cww.vpv020.full.pdf+html?sid=3c266115-f751-446e-add3-ff60432cf4 doi:10.1093/cww/vpv020 doi:10.1093/cww/vpv020
spellingShingle Davison, Sarah
Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children
title Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children
title_full Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children
title_fullStr Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children
title_full_unstemmed Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children
title_short Intertextual relations: James Joyce and William Shakespeare in Angela Carter’s Wise Children
title_sort intertextual relations: james joyce and william shakespeare in angela carter’s wise children
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32505/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32505/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32505/