Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus
In Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984), the protagonist Fevvers is a character with an overwhelming bodily presence, whose identity is mediated through her bodily performances and via the viewership of the spectacle that is her “self”. Always facing the question “Is she fact or is she a fict...
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Istanbul University Press
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Litera: Dil, Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi |
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| Online Access: | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/277C4C2F4746417BB1D859C4CBB8599E |
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| author | Özge Öz |
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| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984), the protagonist Fevvers is a character with an overwhelming bodily presence, whose identity is mediated through her bodily performances and via the viewership of the spectacle that is her “self”. Always facing the question “Is she fact or is she a fiction?”, the real identity and being of Fevvers seems to escape the reader through her magnified corporeality and performativity. Yet, as the episodes in which Fevvers performs as inanimate objects or is juxtaposed next to them show, the corporeal existence of Fevvers harbors many posthuman possibilities for subjectivity, even though Fevvers is also discovered to be severely marked by her human identity and femininity. Using a theoretical framework informed by writings on thing theory, posthumanism, and posthuman feminism, this paper explores the hybrid bodily existence of Fevvers from a post humanist angle to point out that despite demonstrating a general intuition towards a posthuman understanding of subjectivity and feminism as also claimed by former critics, Nights at the Circus finally dismisses such possibilities for a “corporeal feminism” as manifestoed by Elizabeth Grozs. Staying loyal to her human nature, the novel’s protagonist Fevvers turns down possibilities offered by her animal, thing, and machine beings and subsumes her hybridity under corporeal feminism. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e5a0e575d0254572ac8dc8d20160e1f4 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2602-2117 |
| language | deu |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Istanbul University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Litera: Dil, Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi |
| spelling | doaj-art-e5a0e575d0254572ac8dc8d20160e1f42025-08-20T02:27:00ZdeuIstanbul University PressLitera: Dil, Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi2602-21172022-05-01321416410.26650/LITERA2021-876183123456Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the CircusÖzge Öz0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0074-374Xİstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi, İstanbul, TürkiyeIn Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984), the protagonist Fevvers is a character with an overwhelming bodily presence, whose identity is mediated through her bodily performances and via the viewership of the spectacle that is her “self”. Always facing the question “Is she fact or is she a fiction?”, the real identity and being of Fevvers seems to escape the reader through her magnified corporeality and performativity. Yet, as the episodes in which Fevvers performs as inanimate objects or is juxtaposed next to them show, the corporeal existence of Fevvers harbors many posthuman possibilities for subjectivity, even though Fevvers is also discovered to be severely marked by her human identity and femininity. Using a theoretical framework informed by writings on thing theory, posthumanism, and posthuman feminism, this paper explores the hybrid bodily existence of Fevvers from a post humanist angle to point out that despite demonstrating a general intuition towards a posthuman understanding of subjectivity and feminism as also claimed by former critics, Nights at the Circus finally dismisses such possibilities for a “corporeal feminism” as manifestoed by Elizabeth Grozs. Staying loyal to her human nature, the novel’s protagonist Fevvers turns down possibilities offered by her animal, thing, and machine beings and subsumes her hybridity under corporeal feminism.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/277C4C2F4746417BB1D859C4CBB8599Eposthumanismthing theoryangela carterfeminismnights at the circus |
| spellingShingle | Özge Öz Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus Litera: Dil, Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi posthumanism thing theory angela carter feminism nights at the circus |
| title | Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus |
| title_full | Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus |
| title_fullStr | Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus |
| title_short | Dismissed Possibilities: Thingness, Posthumanism and Corporeal Feminism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus |
| title_sort | dismissed possibilities thingness posthumanism and corporeal feminism in angela carter s nights at the circus |
| topic | posthumanism thing theory angela carter feminism nights at the circus |
| url | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/277C4C2F4746417BB1D859C4CBB8599E |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ozgeoz dismissedpossibilitiesthingnessposthumanismandcorporealfeminisminangelacartersnightsatthecircus |