Artificial Enough to Become Genuine? Gender Politics in Angela Carter’s The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

Abstract

The following essay aims at examining the artificiality of social gender construction as depicted in Angela Carter’s 1972 novel The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman. With the inclusion of her later, theoretical work, The Sadeian Woman (1979), I will argue that the novel wants to raise awareness for prevailing patriarchal structures to facilitate change towards a gender-equal society. At the same time, Desire Machines offers a first glimpse at what a then liberated society could look like.