An intertextual reading of female characters in Margaret Atwood’s work PhD Department of English Literature Carla Scarano D’Antonio November 2020 Microsoft Office User Carla Scarano D’Antonio Table of Contents Declaration of original authorship …………………………………………………………… 3 Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………….. 4 Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………… 5 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Chapter 1: Engendering dialogue: intertextual analysis in Margaret Atwood’s work ……… 22 Chapter 2: Negotiating with the body: The Edible Woman ………………………………… 69 Chapter 3: Surfacing: transforming identities ……………………………………………….106 Chapter 4: Bodily Sight: The Handmaid’s Tale ………………………………………….... 147 Chapter 5: Cat’s Eye: the power of sight ………………………………………………….. 209 Concluding remarks ……………………………………………………………………….. 261 Bibliography of works cited and consulted ……………………………………………….. 268 ©University of Reading 2021 Monday, 12 April 2021 Page 2 Microsoft Office User Carla Scarano D’Antonio Declaration of original authorship I confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged Carla Scarano D’Antonio ©University of Reading 2021 Monday, 12 April 2021 Page 3 Microsoft Office User Carla Scarano D’Antonio Acknowledgements First of all, my gratitude goes to my supervisors, Madeleine Davies and Peter Stoneley of the Department of English Literature, University of Reading, for their valuable and insightful feedback and continuous support of my research throughout my PhD course. I also need to thank the Canada–UK foundation and the University of Reading for their financial support. I am also indebted to Giulia Champion and Gareth Johnson of the University of Warwick for having encouraged me and for having published my article on The Edible Woman in Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, University of Warwick. I am deeply grateful to the Centre for Myth Studies, University of Essex, for giving me the opportunity to present my work on Margaret Atwood and for the interesting inputs during our conversations. A special thank you to Eirini Apanomeritaki and Pietra Palazzolo for welcoming me during the meetings and for their suggestions on my work. This thesis also owes much to the feedback I received during the annual reviews and the upgrade review from Mary Morrissey, David Brauner and Karin Lesnik-Oberstein. I wish to thank my son Francesco D’Antonio, for our conversations on Margaret Atwood’s work and for his positive and honest critique of my research. My Canadian friends in Calgary, Pam Medlan, Josephine LoRe and Crystal Mac Kenzie, have also contributed to the development of this thesis; they welcomed me and allowed me to experience Canada and therefore enrich my studies. Beverley Sykes deserves a special thank you for her perseverance in proofreading my work, paying attention to all the little changes that were needed and the discrepancies that I overlooked. I dedicate the thesis to my family, who supported me emotionally during some difficult moments and rejoiced with me every time I completed a chapter. This thesis has also been completed thanks to the friendly environment of the University of Reading, the courses of the Graduate school I had the opportunity to attend and the seminars and lessons of the Department of English Literature. ©University of Reading 2021 Monday, 12 April 2021 Page 4 Microsoft Office User Carla Scarano D’Antonio Abstract The intertextual dialogue in a selection of Margaret Atwood’s novels is the focus of this thesis. The chapters analyse four novels: The Edible Woman, Surfacing, The Handmaid’s Tale and Cat’s Eye. Chapter 1 posits the theoretical framework, drawing ideas from Bakhtin, Kristeva, Riffaterre, Hutcheon and Foucault. The intertextual conversation in Atwood’s novels questions traditional narratives in a continuous exchange that generates visions that are alternatives to the roles and rules of the androcentric society. The frequent use of intertexts allows a ‘dialogic thought’ that opens up to multiple diverse visions that deny dichotomous restrictive roles that are implemented through traditional narratives in schools and families in a consumerist and exploitative perspective. The openness to different views gives space to a broader human vision and possible multiple readings in a continuous relationship and conversation with the Other that generates identities in flux; it is a never-ending process that creates new meanings in changing contexts where opposites coexist. The incongruous roles proposed by society are therefore exposed as restrictive and menacing and new approaches are proposed that aim for human survival. From this view, humanity is saved in a process of continuous questioning that is self- reflexive as well as in tension with previous narratives from high and low culture and traditional and contemporary discourses where the angle continuously shifts in a revolutionary mode. This entails the intertextual ‘dialogic thought’, the disruptive vision of écriture féminine and the position of the reader function in conversation with the writer function within the novels. Various readings are therefore proposed without a definite closure, allowing further developments that go beyond the ending in a world of language where ‘reality’ is constructed in words. Atwood’s literary world is representative of a political and social context and, at the same time, challenges this ‘reality’ in an attempt to rewrite these narratives from within through the intertextual conversation. ©University of Reading 2021 Monday, 12 April 2021 Page 5 Microsoft Office User Carla Scarano D’Antonio Introduction Intertextuality is a modality of perception, the deciphering of the text by the reader in such a way that he identifies the structures to which the text owes its quality of work of art. Michel Riffaterre, Syllepsis, 1980 There is no either/or. However. Margaret Atwood, ‘Spelling’, True Stories, 1981 You can wander away. You can get lost. Words can do that. Margaret Atwood, ‘Dearly’, Dearly, 2020 The critical analysis of the intertextual dialogue in Margaret Atwood’s novels reveals a constant conversation within the main text. The novels question and challenge the narratives of the androcentric dominant society via the recurring use of intertexts and allusions and invite a rethinking of traditional discourses. The intertextual references are reversed, deconstructed and revised in order to suggest a different vision which is diverse, multiple and non-dichotomous. It is an attempt to change the narratives from within to form a new human view in a female perspective. This perspective is multifaceted and open; it is in progress and encompasses different aspects of being human. In my thesis I argue that Margaret Atwood’s use of intertexts aims to revise traditional narratives of the patriarchal society in the sociopolitical context that existed at the time the novels I analyse were published. This attempted revision is also relevant at the time of writing in view of the risk of backlashes against women and human rights as well as against environmental concerns. Atwood’s rewriting of these types of narratives is an attempt to remythologise the stories, myths and legends that construct our world, a world of language. The intertextual allusions and interpretations parody the texts in a dialogic mode that exposes the incongruities of the constricted roles of the patriarchal society. The intertexts are therefore a tool that deconstructs obsolete narratives and changes them from within; the intertexts propose alternative visions. Thus, questioning and proposing are the two parallel paths Atwood adopts to envisage a change in a polyvalent view that is diverse, flexible and in flux. It is a work in progress that needs to adapt to different sociopolitical situations. In this new vision, she is committed to giving voice and space to marginalised groups, especially to women. ©University of Reading 2021 Monday, 12 April 2021 Page 6 Microsoft Office User Carla Scarano D’Antonio The thesis focuses on four novels that are analysed chronologically. They span a period of about twenty years when second-wave feminism was proposing more radical views in a society that was turning more conservative and becoming more limiting for women. I argue that Atwood exposes the constricted and diminished roles forced on women in the intertextual dialogue and develops the protagonists’ attempts to progress towards more autonomous selves. The selection of intertextual references that I have chosen to examine means to highlight the oppressive and threatening message of the patriarchal narratives, as will be seen in my analysis of the novels. The traditional narratives are exceedingly demanding; they not only force women into caged roles but also menace their being. Opposing and rebelling against the status quo seems to be the only way to survive developing self-awareness and knowledge through an exploration that involves the body and connects to the maternal chora, a pre-linguistic status that occurred before the symbolic law of the father, according to Kristeva. In this way, Atwood’s female protagonists acquire power to form a whole self through language in a dynamic exploration in which the body is central. Through the intertextual dialogue, that is, through the reinterpretation of the intertextual connections within the main text, the novels propose alternatives to the reader. Thus, the reader is invited to take part in the intertextual dialogue; they are an active