“In the Kaleidoscope of Desire”: Reading Allegorical Figures from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene in Angela Carter’s Three Cat Tales

Authors

Marie Emilie Walz, University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland

Abstract

I show how Angela Carter’s “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon,” “The Tiger’s Bride,” and “Puss-in-Boots” rework in a kaleidoscopic fashion the episode of “Una and the Lyon” from Book I of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Because each of Carter’s cat tales offers an alternative to Una and to the outcome of her encounter with the Lyon, they debunk this archetypal figure from Spenser’s allegory, highlight the complexity of the representation of gendered roles in The Faerie Queene, and thus challenge the common idea that Spenserian allegory imprisons women in fixed ideals only.

Recommended Citation

Walz, Marie Emilie. "“In the Kaleidoscope of Desire”: Reading Allegorical Figures from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene in Angela Carter’s Three Cat Tales." Marvels & Tales 30.2 (2017). Web. <https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/marvels/vol30/iss2/7>.