Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus A Routledge Study Guide [Hardcover]

A highly original and influential work of modern British literature, Angela Carters Nights at the Circuscombines a fantastically creative plot with a strong political undertone. The result is an emotive and provocative novel, which has attracted much critical attention from a range of perspectives including poststructuralism, gender studies, postmodernism and psychoanalysis.

This guide to Angela Carters complex novel, presents:

• an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Nights at the Circus
  a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present
• a selection of new critical essays on the Nights at the Circus, by Heather Johnson, Jeannette Baxter, Sarah Sceats and Helen Stoddart, providing a variety of perspectives on the novel and extending the coverage of key critical approaches identified in the survey section
• cross-references between sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
• suggestions for further reading.

Part of the Routledge Guides to Literatureseries, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Nights at the Circusand seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Carters text.

Introduction.  Part 1: Nights at the Circus: Text and Contexts  Angela Carter: Biography and Writing.  Forms of Writing.  Academic Contexts.  Internationalism.  Recognition.  Britain: 1890s, 1960s and 1980s.  Literary Contexts and Beyond.  Walter Benjamin and the Angel of History.  Michel Foucault and the Panopticon.  Laura MulvelóÇ