Patriarchal Myths in the Novels of Margaret Atwood: A Critical Study

Miss Huma

doi:10.24113/ijellh.v8i8.10705

Abstract

The article acquaints and explains the consideration of Margaret Atwood’s novels: ‘Surfacing’ (1972), ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985), and ‘The Robber Bride’ (1993), which presents the role of patriarchal myths in the era of post-modern. She tried to represent the situation of women in contemporary society, where society demands mute acceptance from a woman considered as “weaker sex” or “inferior sex”. Feminism both as a concept and a movement has emerged as a reaction against the atrocities of patriarchy. By myth-making, Margaret is testing her identity, perception, recording the world, and value systems projected is the past.

Highlights

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer and wrote many novels, short stories, and poetry. She is best known for her novel in which she represents the suffering of female character through a variety of genres and devices, most notably science fiction and reworking of myth
Atwood focused to depict about patriarchal myths, among them the most famous novel Surfacing (1972), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), and The Robber Bride (1993), which present that the role of patriarchal myths in the post-modern era
Hoping to shed light on the vigorous and the reasons for e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 8, AUGUST 2020 contemporary real gender-based violence and depreciation, the study will focus on the main points of Margaret Atwood’s work like the approaches space contributes to the creation, the hardness, and the dominion of dystopian power the delegation and the construction of female figures, roles, and identities, the technique of control, manipulation and oppression used by a patriarchal power against woman, the impact of sex, sexuality and motherhood on woman’s bodies and the possible feminist alternative or solution proposed by the novels

Summary

Introduction

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer and wrote many novels, short stories, and poetry. Power and Gender Identity Atwood has never defined herself as a feminist writer because of her conviction that a writer’s works should remain outside the narrowing framework of all ideology, her writing offers feminist criticism invaluable material because it is about the female experience in western patriarchal society from a female point of view.

Results

Conclusion