The Arts of Angela Carter: A Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Marie Mulvey-Roberts  is published by Manchester University Press. This book gives new insights into the multifarious worlds of Angela Carter and re-assesses her impact and importance for the twenty-first century. It brings together leading Carter scholars with some emerging academics, in a new approach to her work, which focuses on the diversity of her interests and versatility across different fields. 

The fantastical and multi-dimensional work of Angela Carter resembles a series of curious rooms or a textual cabinet of curiosities. This book provides new insights into the multifarious worlds of Angela Carter in a re-assessment of her impact and importance for the twenty-first century. In making new approaches to her work, leading Carter scholars have been brought together with emerging academics to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of her death. The main focus is on the diversity of Carter’s interests, which demonstrate her wide knowledge across different fields. There are chapters on the influence of music, art, religion, fashion, anthropology, puppetry, theatre, film and the Gothic. Some essays venture into lesser-known aspects of her output to include poetry and journalism, as well as her role as a translator and how that impacted upon her creativity. Even where chapters are devoted to specific works, they tend to concentrate on inter-disciplinary crossings-over as in, for example, translational poetics and psychogeography. This collection also explores the importance of space and place within Carter’s writing, ranging from Bristol to Tokyo. This celebration of the artfulness of Angela Carter serves to affirm the relevance of her writing for us today and her significance as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century.

About the Author

Marie Mulvey-Roberts is Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of the West of England
 
Cover: Juli Haas, Women’s Place  (1994), courtesy Off-Centre Gallery, Bristol, Photograph by Peter Ford. ©The Artist’s Estate.