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to one another oftheir sexual difference, as was perhaps always the case; it is a space
in which they can modify the now obvious partial interpretations previously accorded
to certain forms and motifs.,25 The metaphor of space lends itself most easily to
highlighting women's relation to the canon and it is one that we meet over and over
again in feminist criticism. It dovetails in a more original way, however, with the
fantastic. The reliance of this mode upon the inner world ofthe imagination offers the
prospect of potential space unexplored because it originates in the individual." This
individual stands with her feet firmly in her social context, however, leading to a
fantastic space in which intertextual anxiety and creative pleasure collide in the
female writer's work. Often the writer's use of fantastic space offers an insight into
her attitude towards the male-authored canon.
Exploring the links between literary space and the fantastic manipulation of
space also takes us beyond the idea offemale/feminist writer telling 'her'story as a re­
working of female stereotypes. This latter approach could be described as a journey
through an enchanted forest in which any attempts to escape the wicked witch only
lead to further encounters. As Marina Warner astutely points out, the re-formulation
of the female stereotype can lead to a further reinforcement of the very notions one
wishes to avoid, whether as author or critic:
This defiance results, it seems to me, in collusion, it can magnify female
demons, rather than lay them to rest, for men and women. The limits of the
carnivalesque, of turning the world upside down as a rebel strategy have long
been recognised: make the slave king for a day and he'll be docile for a year.'27
The same approach presents similar problems for Sigrid Weigel leading her to the
conclusion that 'alla domanda se Ie donne posseggano un immaginario diverso
text, which is not one ofcommentary) and architextuality (reference to the text's genre).
2S Carol Lazzaro-Weis, introduction, p.xv.
26 See, for example, Anca Vlasopolos' question: 'Where does this leave us, late twentieth century
women facing oceans already explored and whose deepest canyons bear the mark ofthe conquest - the
ubiquitous beer can? Perhaps we can stand with Marge Piercy's hero Connie on the edge of time,
turning to the recovered, cleansed seas of a future without externally imposed gender differences. This
new liminal zone might explain the attraction of fantasy and sci-fi for so many women writers in the
twentieth century, for this frontier offers us the open, uncharted non-territory the three novels I have
discussed have sought over and under the sea.' in 'At Sea in Deep Water: Women's Spaces in
Persuasion, The Awakening and The Voyage Out' in Proceedings of the XlIth Congress of the
International Comparative Literature Association: Space and Boundaries Munich, 1988 (Munich:
iudicum verlag, 1990), III, pp. 480-486 (p.485).
27 Marina Warner, Managing Monsters: Six Myths ofOur Time. The 1994 Reith Lectures (London:
Vintage, 1994), p.lO.
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