Overview

The ongoing proliferation of new versions of Carmen presents an ideal opportunity to study both the cultural power and renewability of certain literary texts and the relationship between literature and the performing arts. Since its introduction in Prosper Merimee's 1845 novella, the Carmen character has been the subject of countless portrayals-from Bizet's 1874 opera, to various dramatic, dance, and musical renditions, to films by such directors as Peter Brook, Jean-Luc Godard, Francesco Rosi, and Carlos Saura. In The Fate of Carmen, Evlyn Gould studies competing representations of Carmen as either dangerous femme fatale, liberated woman, or vanguard warrior in the battle between the sexes.

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9780801853678

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Reviews

Evlyn Gould's book has the singular originality of both drawing attention to and offering an interesting interpretation of the high degree of ambivalence in the Carmen material (a set of mythemes that approaches the Faust and the Don Juan material in importance). The figure of Carmen stands for a dangerous femininity or cultural otherness that exerts a fatal attraction on masculine figures of order and authority. More recently, she has be understood from a feminist perspective as an inspiring figure of revolt and freedom. Gould's merit is to show the sense in which each of these readings is simultaneously correct--and partial. This book is an important one, both for its enrichment of the concept of oppositionality and oppositional narrative, and for the contribution it makes to Carmen studies. --Ross Chambers, University of Michigan

Author Information

Evlyn Gould is an associate professor of French at the University of Oregon.

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