Dying in a state of grace: memory, duality, and uncertainty in Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace

Abstract

Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace (1996) is examined in relation to her theorization of death and authorship in Negotiating With the Dead (2002). Broader theories of death, the author, and posthumous narration, as proposed by Roland Barthes, Alice Bennett, and others, are also employed. The novel is further linked to what Atwood herself calls a Jamesian form of ghost story, and is read alongside two stories by Henry James (‘The Jolly Corner’ (1908) and ‘The Middle Years’ (1893)). Elements of both the ghost story genre and the crime genre are shown to be used by Atwood to create a sense of uncertainty in the narrative structure of the novel. It is argued that this sense of uncertainty is part of Atwood's use of a sylleptic narrative structure to achieve an authorial position that keeps Author and scriptor simultaneously in play.