This paper aims to analyze Angela Carter’s treatment of the female desiring subject represented in her novel Heroes and Villains. Creating a female character who is “a stranger to her own desire,” Carter explores the intricate connection between desire and patriarchal social fictions. It is my contention that by feminizing the role of demon lover in Gothic romance, Carter manifests how a woman’s desire and even sexuality are hinged on the fantasy that proffers a masculine rationale of desire. With a Lacanian approach, which helps to decipher the mystery of the unconscious desire, this paper will explore how the female desiring subject represented in this novel finds a way to articulate her own desire and obtains a self-made answer to the enigma of the Other’s desire.

Key words: desiring subject, the object of desire, the unconscious, desire, fantasy, gaze

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