Mythological heroes, historical figures and characters of world literature in the works of Margaret Atwood

Abstract

The subject of the research in this article is Margaret Atwood's literary game, which includes work with myths, world history and literature. Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) is a well-known modern Canadian writer, poet, literary critic and critic. Her works include the novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985) and its sequel, The Testaments (2019), as well as the fantasy trilogy The Mindless Addam (2003-2013). No matter what M. Atwood writes about, her works are always a story, a complex and multilevel narrative, in the center of which stands the figure of the narrator. Having begun her literary activity in the heyday of postmodernism, M. Atwood combines many features of this trend in her work: literary play, rethinking archetypal images and traditions, deconstruction. Taking as a basis the achievements of foreign and domestic researchers of M. Atwood's work, as well as research in the field of literary studies by M. Atwood herself, we describe how M. Atwood studies, analyzes and recreates well–known patterns on a new basis – in Canadian literature. The main conclusions of the study are: 1) Being a representative of young Canadian literature without a well-formed cultural and literary layer, M. Atwood borrows from the global literary tradition, as well as mythology and folklore, heroes and images that she seeks to "instill" on new Canadian soil. 2) M. Atwood's deconstruction is not the destruction, analysis of an established tradition, but, on the contrary, an attempt to create it through appropriation and assimilation of other people's traditions. 3) M. Atwood, as a rule, takes ancient Greek and European myths and fairy tales as a basis. 4) Working with the characters of wandering plots and textbook works (Shakespeare), M. Atwood often resorts to overturning the established idea of characters, creating doppelgangers and "werewolves".