Angela Carter - Shaking a Leg

Shaking a Leg

Collected Writings

by Angela Carter

a.b.e-book v3.0 / Notes at EOF

Back Cover:

"An electrifying intellectual autobiography, with all the narrative expanse, drama, outrage, andhigh comedy of the author's fiction. Angela Carter is revealed here, anew, as one or the mostimportant thinkers of twentieth-century world literature -- and one of its most pungent voices." --Rick MoodyOne of contemporary literature's most original and affecting fiction writers, Angela Carter also wrote brilliant nonfiction.

Shaking a Leg

comprises the best of her essays and criticism,much of it collected for the first time. Carter's acute observations are spiked with her piercingmatter-of-factness, her devastating wit, her penchant for mockery, and her passion for the absurd.Whether discussing films or food, feminism or fantasy, science fiction or sex, Carter consistentlyexplores new territories and overturns old ideas. No cultural icon escapes her scrutiny; as in her fiction, Carter offers glorious evidence of the transforming power of the imagination. Fromdelightfully wicked commentaries on

Gone With the Wind

, a Japanese fertility festival, andfellow writers, including Lawrence, Lovecraft, Borges, and Burroughs, to enchanting personalessays, Carter shares her thoughts and herself with glee."What a wonderful collection -- sharp, funny, too decent for sarcasm but great wit and humanity,an unusual combination. But it makes us miss her, miss laughing

with

her, that real, intelligent,tough writing woman." -- Grace Paley"Angela Carter is a dazzling, unflinching, mordant observer of contemporary appetites, an ironistand a tragedian of twentieth-century cultural effects, a dazzling conjuror with language and withsymbols, a writer whose originality of eye and mind never fails to divert, to illuminate, to changeher readers' understanding and quicken our wits." -- Marina Warner

Shaking a Leg

COLLECTED WRITINGS

ANGELA CARTER

With an Introduction by Joan Smith Edited by Jenny Uglow Research Assistant Charlotte Crofts

PENGUIN BOOKSPublished by the Penguin GroupPenguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane,London W8 STZ, EnglandPenguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,Victoria, AustraliaPenguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,Auckland 10, New ZealandPenguin India, 210 Chiranjiv Tower, 43 Nehru Place, New Delhi 11009, IndiaPenguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:Harmondsworth, Middlesex, EnglandFirst published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus Limited 1997Published in Penguin Books 19981 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2Copyright © the Estate of Angela Carter, 1997Introduction copyright © Joan Smith, 1997All rights reservedIntroduction to

Wayward Girls & Wicked Women

edited by Angela Carter.Copyright © Angela Carter, 1986. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books,a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.Information about the original publication of the selections containedherein appears in the chronology starting on page 609.ISBN 0 14 02.7695 5(CIP data available)Printed in the United States of AmericaSet in BemboExcept in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to thecondition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold,hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consentin any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is publishedand without a similar condition including this condition being imposedon the subsequent purchaser.

Contents

Editor's noteIntroduction by Joan SmithSELFThe Mother LodeMy Father's HouseSugar Daddy Notes from a Maternity Ward

Fools Are My Theme Notes from the Front LineAnger in a Black LandscapeBODY LANGUAGES

Fleshly Matters

Lovely LindaFat Is UglyA Well-Hung Hang-UpHealth on the BrainGeorges Bataille:

Story of the Eye

Edward Shorter:

A History of Women's Bodies

Eric Rhode:

On Birth and Madness Food Fetishes

The New VegetariansSaucerer's ApprenticeJessica Kuper (ed.):

The Anthropologist's Cookbook

Barbara Tims (ed.):

Food in Vogue

Elizabeth David:

English Bread and Yeast Cookery An Omelette and a Glass of Wine

and Other DishesPatience Gray:

Honey from a Weed Dressing Up and Down

Notes for a Theory of Sixties StyleThe Wound in the FaceTrouser ProtestYear of the Punk The Bridled SweetiesTed Polhemus and Lynn Procter:

Fashion and Anti-Fashion

David Kunzle:

Fashion and Fetishisms

The Recession StyleLou Taylor:

Mourning Dress

Elizabeth Wilson:

Adorned in Dreams

Roland Barthes:

The Fashion System

Arthur Marwick:

Beauty in History

HOME AND AWAY

What the Hell -- It's Home!

Bradford: Industry as Artwork Fin de SiècleThe Oss Has His DayBath, Heritage CityWhat the Hell -- It's Home!The Donnie FerretsThe Paris of the NorthD'You Mean South?Poets in a LandscapeSo There'll Always Be an England