The Resistance of Body: The Manifestations of Feminism and Postcolonialism in Nights at the Circus 

Lu Xuan

Minzu University of China, Beijing China，100081；

Abstract: Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus, set in the Victorian era, takes the bodily resistance of the winged protagonist Fevvers as its narrative core and constructs a closely intertwined critical framework of feminism and postcolonialism, with feminist body theory as the central link. This thesis argues that Fevvers’ hybrid winged body is not merely a bodily weapon for subverting the patriarchal discipline rooted in the binary opposition of "angel and monster", but also a key vehicle for deconstructing the imperial colonial gaze and breaking the hierarchical opposition between the colonial center and the marginalized other. By resorting to Judith Butler’s feminist body theory and Edward Said’s Orientalism, and adopting the methods of close textual reading and theoretical mutual verification, this thesis explores the concrete manifestations and intrinsic connections of the two theories in the novel, and expounds how Carter forges a cross-gender and cross-racial resistance alliance through Fevvers’ bodily practice and the collective liberation of marginalized groups in the circus. It is revealed that the essence of patriarchal and colonial oppression lies in the artificial solidification of boundaries and the deprivation of narrative power, and the core of resistance is to break such boundaries and reclaim the lost bodily and linguistic narrative power. In doing so, Carter presents a pluralistic critique of dual power oppression and expresses her eternal pursuit of free subjectivity and collective liberation for all marginalized groups, endowing the novel with profound contemporary practical significance for the pursuit of gender and racial equality.

Keywords: Angela Carter; Nights at the Circus; feminist body theory; colonial gaze; bodily resistance; narrative power

References

[1]Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. Routledge, 2011.

[2]Carter, Angela. Nights at the Circus. Vintage, 1994.

[3]Gu, J. Investigating Desiderius Erasmus’ Copia and Its Semiotic Meaning: A Case Study of Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus[J]. Language & Semiotic Studies, 2021,7(2):101-120.

[4]Paulusma, P. C. A. “Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage”: Avianthropes and the Embodiment of the Canorographic Voice in Angela Carter’s “The Erl King” and Nights at the Circus[J]. Contemporary Women's Writing, 2021,15(1):33-51.

[5]Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage Books, 1979.

[6]Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2006.

[7]Yang, K. Y. C. Angels and Feathers: Transcorporeal Morphing in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus[J]. CRITIQUE-Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 2016,57(5):502-511.