PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University of Tlemcen Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of Foreign Languages Section of English Women Writing in Question : Politics and Aesthetics in Margaret Atwood’s Novels Thesis submitted in candidacy for the degree of Doctorate in English Literature Presented by Supervised by Mrs Houda Bouhadjar Pr Ilhem Serir Mortad Board of Examiners Dr Wasila Mouro (M.C.A) Chairwoman University of Tlemcen Pr Ilhem Serir (Prof) Supervisor University of Tlemcen Pr Nourddine Guerroudj (Prof) Examiner University of Sidi Belabbes Pr Leila Moulfi (M.C.A) Examiner University of Oran Dr Azzeddine Bouhassoun (M.C.A) Examiner University of Ain Temouchent Dr Abdellatif Semmoud (M.C.A) Examiner University of Tlemcen Academic Year 2017/2018 “Woman must write herself: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies” Hélène Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa” (137) Dedications I dedicate this work to the dearest creatures to my heart, my sons Mohamed Amine and Abderrahmane, to God’s heaven on earth my mother and to the one who supported me with love, help and patience to accomplish this work, my husband Yaaqub Boudjadar. I thank my beloved friends and sisters, Rima and Mounia and my brothers Ramzi and Salah Eddine for their encouragements. To my father and mother, I hope you feel proud of me because my success is yours. To all the silenced women whose voices have been stolen, whose bodies have been colonized and whose forgiveness have been pushed to the extreme, I dedicate this work. I Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep feelings of gratitude to my supervisor Prof Serir Mortad Ilhem and the board of examiners without whom this work would have never come into light. I feel that prose is poor when it comes to describing an intelligent mind, an understanding attitude and a generous soul when they belong to a woman. I feel my supervisor’s acquaintance is a God’s gift that helped me learn responsibility through freedom. To the ever young woman whose heart is made of a golden stone, still it surrounds you with support and motherly tenderness, I say thank you. II Abstract The present research studies three novels by Margaret Atwood which are Lady Oracle, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Penelopiad as woman’s texts. It aims at showing how the aesthetic and poetic specificities of her novels entail political messages. The three novels belong to different generic categories and signal important stages in Atwood’s development as a woman writer. This study attempts to analyse the aesthetic and intertextual aspects of the aforementioned novels. It examines Atwood’s transformations of the three subgenres: the gothic, the dystopia and the epic to uncover the political aims behind their female appropriation by the writer. The three novels outvoice the writer’s political interests on two levels: the thematic and the aesthetic. Their paratexts, metafictional nature through the use of self-reflexive narrators and intertextual references all serve the writer’s aim of exposing power politics and gender politics in both society and literature writing. In addition, the centrality of the female figure as women writers allow the reader to witness women’s issues of marginality, survival, body image and self realisation. The hypertextual nature of Atwood’s texts serves their integration in the canon while it retains their singularity as expressions of the human condition through a female subjectivity. Key words: women’s writing, aesthetics, paratextuality, intertextuality, hypertextuality, dystopia, gothic romance, epic, politics. III Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... I Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. II Abstract ............................................................................................................................... III Contents.................................................................................................................................IV General Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: Women’s Writing in Canadian Literature ............................................. 9 1.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 11 1.2. Feminist Literary Criticism .......................................................................................... 11 1.3. Different Voices Enriching the Feminist Spectrum ..................................................... 18 1.3.1. Anglo American Feminist Criticism ....................................................................... 19 1.3.2. French Feminist Criticism ....................................................................................... 20 1.4. Women’s Writing in Canada ........................................................................................ 22 1.4.1. Canadian Literature: Geographical, Historical and Cultural Traits ........................ 22 1.4.2. Canadian Women Writers ....................................................................................... 25 1.4.3. Margaret Atwood: The Literary Celebrity .............................................................. 30 1.4.3.1. Early Influences Shaping Later Concerns .............................................................. 30 1.4.3.2. A Woman’s Voice and Its Echoes .......................................................................... 35 1.5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter Two: Gerard Genette’s Theories of Aesthetics and Transtextuality ............ 47 2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 50 2.2. Gerard Genette’s Poetics and Aesthetics: A Theoretical Background ......................... 50 2.2.1. The Concept of Paratextuality ................................................................................... 52 2.2.2. The Functions of the Pratext ..................................................................................... 52 IV 2.2.3. Temporal Positions of the Paratext ........................................................................... 55 2.2.4. Titology ..................................................................................................................... 56 2.2.4.1. Definition ............................................................................................................... 56 2.2.4.2. Functions of Titles .................................................................................................. 57 2.2.4.3. Intertitles ................................................................................................................. 60 2.2.5. The epigraph .............................................................................................................. 62 2.2.5.1. Definition ............................................................................................................... 62 2.2.5.2. The Epigraphed ...................................................................................................... 62 2.2.5.3. The Epigrapher ....................................................................................................... 63 2.2.5.4. The Epigraphee ...................................................................................................... 64 2.2.5.5. Functions of the Epigraph ...................................................................................... 64 2.2.6.Notes ........................................................................................................................... 66 2.2.6.1.Definition ................................................................................................................ 66 2.2.6.2. Function .................................................................................................................. 68 2.2.7.The Illustration ........................................................................................................... 69 2.2.7.1.TableI. Taxonomy of Functions of Images to the Text ........................................... 70 2.3. Intertextuality ............................................................................................................... 73 2.3.1. A Historical Overview .............................................................................................. 73 2.3.2. Definition .................................................................................................................. 78 2.3.3. Forms of Intertextuality ............................................................................................. 78 2.3.3.1. Plagiarism. .............................................................................................................. 78 2.3.3.2. Quotation ................................................................................................................ 79 2.3.3.3. Allusion .................................................................................................................. 79 2.4. Intratextuality ..............................................................................................................