Of Tales, tragic opera, transformation and “tongues”: Tristan und Isolde in Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber

This chapter explores a hitherto under-researched aspect of Angela Carter’s writings: her subversive incorporation of Wagner’s opera, Tristan und Isolde, into her seminal Bloody Chamber collection. Indeed, Carter uses (and abuses) the Tristan motif to critically examine art and myth, deconstruct fixed binaries and reconfigure tired archetypes as hybrid figures that defy boundaries and challenge culturally inculcated beliefs about gender relations, eroticism, and art. These moves, coupled with the performative nature of both Wagner’s opera and Carter’s tales, also anticipate current trends in feminist and queer theory, thereby guaranteeing the continued relevance of the collection for the twenty-first century. This initial study of Carter’s critical dialogue with Wagner’s Tristan demonstrates the important role played by Tristan und Isolde in Carter’s “demythologizing” use of fairy tale and her feminist project in The Bloody Chamber.