nglish anguage verseas erspectives and nquiries Vol. 17, No. 1 (2020) Atwood at 80 Guest Editors: MICHELLE GADPAILLE and JASON BLAKE Journal Editors: SMILJANA KOMAR and MOJCA KREVEL Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani Ljubljana, 2020 ISSN 1581-8918 nglish anguage verseas erspectives and nquiries Vol. 17, No. 1 (2020) Atwood at 80 Guest Editors: MICHELLE GADPAILLE and JASON BLAKE Journal Editors: SMILJANA KOMAR and MOJCA KREVEL Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani Ljubljana, 2020 CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 811.111'243(082) 37.091.3:81'243(082) ATWOOD at 80 / guest editors Michelle Gadpaille and Jason Blake. - Ljubljana : University Press, Faculty of Arts = Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, 2020. - (ELOPE : English language overseas perspectives and enquiries, ISSN 1581-8918 ; vol. 17, no. 1) ISBN 978-961-06-0348-1 1. Gadpaille, Michelle COBISS.SI-ID 20050179 Contents PART I: Introduction Michelle Gadpaille and Jason Blake 9 Introduction: Atwood at 80 PART II: Articles Coral Ann Howells 15 Atwood’s Reinventions: So Many Atwoods Atwood v iskanju novega: Številne podobe Aleksandra Vukelić 29 Othering, Resistance and Recovery in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye Podrugačenje, uporništvo in ozdravitev v romanu Mačje oko Margaret Atwood Bojana Aćamović 41 Replenishing the Odyssey: Margaret Atwood’s and John Barth’s Postmodern Epics Dopolnitev Odiseje: Postmoderna epa Margaret Atwood in Johna Bartha Beatrix Kiss 57 Elimination of Gender Equality in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale Odprava enakosti spolov v Deklini zgodbi Margaret Atwood Ewelina Feldman Kołodziejuk 67 Mothers, Daughters, Sisters: The Intergenerational Transmission of Womanhood in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments Matere, hčere, sestre: Medgeneracijski prenos ženskosti v romanih Deklina zgodba in Testamenti Margaret Atwood 3 Oana Celia Gheorghiu, Michaela Praisler 87 Rewriting Politics, or the Emerging Fourth Wave of Feminism in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments Preoblikovanje politike oz. nastajajoč četrti val feminizma v delu Testamenti avtorice Margaret Atwood Katarína Labudová 97 Testimonies in The Testaments by Margaret Atwood: Images of Food in Gilead Pričevanja v romanu Testamenti Margaret Atwood: Podobe hrane v Gileadu Rano Ringo, Jasmine Sharma 111 Reading a Feminist Epistemology in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Feministična epistemologija v delu MaddAddam Margaret Atwood Tjaša Mohar, Sara Orthaber, Tomaž Onič 125 Machine Translated Atwood: Utopia or Dystopia? Margaret Atwood v strojnem prevodu: Utopija ali distopija? Nikola Tutek 143 Atwood in Numbers: A Numerical Approach Comparing the Illustrations in Bones and Murder and The Tent Atwood v številkah: Numerični pristop k primerjavi ilustracij v Bones and Murder in The Tent List of Contributors 169 5 Part I Introduction LITERATURE 7 Introduction: Atwood at 80 When Margaret Atwood celebrated her 80th birthday in November 2019, there was a feeling that the occasion called for a burst of applause – figuratively speaking. Around Europe, many Canadian scholars and Canadian Studies Associations responded with a range of activities. Slovenia contributed handsomely: first, with an event at the Univerzitetna knjižnica Maribor – Fourscore and More: Margaret Atwood at Eighty – and second, with this special issue dedicated to Atwood’s recent work. With a tight deadline for submissions, we were lucky to have the cooperation of a conference: Margaret Atwood 80: Central European Interpretations / Margaret Atwood 80: interprétations de l’œvre en Europe Centrale, which was jointly sponsored by Károli Gáspár University of The Reformed Church In Hungary, Pázmány Péter Catholic University and Eötvös Loránd University. The organisers graciously includedELOPE ’s Call for Papers in their programme, and several of the papers published here originated from that initiative. Atwood herself found the time to help open the conference (virtually) with a few words – “Wait a minute! 80? What happened? Just the other day I was 77! Where did the time go?” – and some illustrations of her “Writing Burrow,” as well as of illustrations depicting her need to turn down some invitations and requests for interviews. Originally, the editors envisioned a concentration on Atwood’s 21st-century works; however, this worthy objective gave way under the cultural dominance of The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood’s 1985 novel. Given the recent appearance of its sequel, The Testaments (2019), the pair of novels inevitably garnered considerable critical attention (not to mention a Booker Prize for the latter). Contributors to this issue range from young scholars at the beginning of their careers, to experienced scholars who have devoted much of their careers to Atwood. Both voices are welcome and show the long-lasting relevance of Atwood’s oeuvre. Coral Ann Howells’ overview of the later Atwood reminds us that Atwood continues to reinvent herself as a writer. Her literary output in recent decades has been wide-ranging, and the articles collected here bear witness to this range, even if Atwood the poet, Atwood the non-fiction writer, Atwood the children’s author, and Atwood the comic book author are not present. Though some of the articles collected here focus on the red-clad handmaids and the world of Gilead, others look to perhaps lesser-known Atwood creations. In addition to a postcolonial approach to Atwood’s Cat’s Eye, there is a consideration of Atwood as a postmodern myth-rewriter in The Penelopiad, Atwood as the creator of MaddAddam’s post-apocalyptic world, along with a paper highlighting the challenges of translating Atwood’s deceptively straightforward prose, and, finally, an examination of Atwood the illustrator. INTRODUCTION 9 The editors wish to thank all those whose silent contributions made this special issue possible: the translators – Tjaša Mohar, Tina Ritlop, Tadeja Tement, Tadej Todorović and Simon Zupan – and the journal editors – Andrej Stopar and Mojca Krevel. Michelle Gadpaille, University of Maribor, Slovenia Jason Blake, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Guest Editors of ELOPE Vol. 17, No. 1 (2020) INTRODUCTION 11 Part II Articles LITERATURE 13 Coral Ann Howells 2020, Vol. 17 (1), 15-28(164) University of Reading / University of London, revije.ff.uni-lj.si/elope United Kingdom https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.1.15-28 UDC: 821.111(71).09Atwood M. Atwood’s Reinventions: So Many Atwoods ABSTRACT In The Malahat Review (1977), Canadian critic Robert Fulford described Margaret Atwood as “endlessly Protean,” predicting “There are many more Atwoods to come.” Now at eighty, over forty years later, Atwood is an international literary celebrity with more than fifty books to her credit and translated into more than forty languages. This essay focuses on the later Atwood and her apparent reinvention since 2000, where we have seen a marked shift away from realistic fiction towards popular fiction genres, especially dystopias and graphic novels. Atwood has also become increasingly engaged with digital technology as creative writer and cultural critic. As this reading of her post-2000 fiction through her extensive back catalogue across five decades will show, these developments represent a new synthesis of her perennial social, ethical and environmental concerns, refigured through new narrative possibilities as she reaches out to an ever-widening readership, astutely recognising “the need for literary culture to keep up with the times.” Keywords: later Atwood; fiction post-2000; dystopia; popular fiction; digital technology; MaddAddam; The Testaments Atwood v iskanju novega: Številne podobe POVZETEK Kanadski kritik Robert Fulford je v The Malahat Review (1977) Margaret Atwood opisal kot »neskončno protejsko« in napovedal: »Atwood bomo videli še v številnih podobah.« Štiri desetletja kasneje je Atwood pri osemdesetih svetovna literarna zvezdnica z več kot petdeset izdanimi knjigami, prevedenimi v več kot štirideset jezikov. Pričujoči esej se osredotoča na Atwood v poznejšem obdobju in na njeno novo podobo po letu 2000, ko se je opazno odmaknila od realistične pripovedne proze k bolj popularnim žanrom, kot so distopije in grafični romani. Atwood kot ustvarjalno pisateljico in kulturno kritičarko vse bolj zanima tudi digitalna tehnologija. V prispevku so njena dela, nastala po letu 2000, obravnavana v luči njenega ustvarjanja v obdobju petih desetletij. Njihov razvoj predstavlja novo sintezo aktualnih družbenih, etičnih in okoljskih vprašanj, obravnavanih s pomočjo novih pripovednih možnosti, ki se odpirajo ob iskanju poti do vse širšega kroga bralcev in zavedanju, da »mora iti književna kultura v korak s časom«. Ključne besede: Atwood v poznejšem obdobju; proza po letu 2000; distopija; pop-proza; digitalna tehnologija: MaddAddam; Testamenti ARTICLES 15 1 Introduction In 1977 when The Malahat Review published the first collection of critical essays on Margaret Atwood, Robert Fulford, the influential Canadian arts critic and editor ofSaturday Night predicted, “There are many more Atwoods to come” (Fulford 1977, 98). Now at eighty, forty years later, Atwood is still displaying “that freakish combination of personal magic, artistry and infallible timing” (Sandler 1977, 5) which have made her an international literary celebrity. Her latest novel The Testaments, co-winner of the Booker Prize, was top English- language bestseller in 2019, while the