The Implementation of Magical Realism in Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus

Abstract

This dissertation aims at exploring Angela Carters Nights at the Circus in the light of magical realism. It provides a detailed reading for the theoretical frame work, Faris's theory. As well as an examination of the elements of magical realism and exploration the writer's intention behind their use. To this end, the study adopted a descriptive analytical design. Thus, the qualitative approach was used by which instances were extracted to explore magical realism. The latter was treated in order to analyze Angela Carter's motives behind its use. The researchers relied on Faris's magical realism theory as a support to the analysis. It is inferred that the novel of Nights at the Circus belongs to magical realism as it contains many characteristic features suggested by Faris from the ‘irreducible elements of magic’ to the ‘reader’s hesitation’. Carter perfectly used the magical realism mode to achieve feminist goals. She utilizes it to depict the unfair society in an indirect way. In addition, she explains the Western society's preconceived notions about female identity, and liberation. She tries to change realities, invert them, balance the scales of power between sexes, and free her heroine from the oppressive patriarchy, women used to suffer from. To achieve her goals, she empowers the female characters in the novel with supernatural appearances and magical powers that allow them to create their own space. Thus, magical realism is a well-suited means to fulfill her subversive objective, since it allowed the construction of an alternative reality based on a blend of real and supernatural.