The Bloody Chamber - Original Reception

1. Who was one of the first critics to give a serious critical response to The Bloody Chamber?

·         Ellen Cronan Rose

2. What was Ellen Cronan Rose’s response to The Bloody Chamber in Through the Looking Glass: When Women Tell Fairytales?

·         She approved the reversal of stereotypical gender roles as ‘a critique of the idea of adult womanhood sanctioned by patriarchy and a suggested alternative to it’

3. What were Patricia Duncker’s criticisms in Re-imagining the Fairy Tales: Angela Carter’s Bloody Chambers?

·         ‘But the infernal trap inherent in the fairy tale, which fits the form to its purpose, to be the carrier of ideology, proves too complex and pervasive to avoid’

4. Why did Duncker believe Carter had attempted a pointless and impossible task?

·         She believed Carter had attempted an impossible task, in that the form of the fairy tale cannot be used without the new version being contaminated by the ideological content of the original tale.

5. According to Duncker what can’t Carter escape?

·         The fact that the moral values of the stories are trapped by the content of old tales.

6. Was Duncker alone in her criticisms?

·         No

7. Did this affect other women writers attempting their own version of fairytales in the 1970s and 1980s?

·         No