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This study explores the philosophical, linguistic and textual interplay of absence and presence in Margaret Atwood's novel Cat's Eye. The premise of the thesis is that the novel posits language as a problematic communicative medium; as such, language conveys that meanings of words are flexible, mutable and transient. It is through frameworks which both establish states of absence and presence as well as destroy binary oppositions between the two that Cat's Eye conveys its positions about language. Thus, textual and extra-textual discourses about the natures of language and linguistic meaning are situated within recurrent thematic and formal attention to relationships between absence and presence. By exploring the roles of absence and presence in various phenomenological and linguistic contexts, this study concludes that absence/presence is a paradigm in Cat's Eye for the way in which words are (alternately as well as simultaneously) spoken and silent, understood and misunderstood, opposed and united.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

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M.A. / In this dissertation I have explored the ways in which Margaret Atwood, in her novella The Penelopiad, reflect and re-interprets the Penelope of Homer’s Odyssey. The method I am using to explore and form character profiles is in accordance with modern literary theories on character. I have studied how Penelope’s speech, actions, interactions with others, thoughts and other elements of contrast and archetype aid in forming her character profile in Homer and Atwood. The character of Penelope in the Odyssey has been treated differently over the years by scholars and my aim is to discuss how Atwood enters into this critique. She enters into this critique with her fictional re-representation of Penelope in The Penelopiad. I have concluded that The Penelopiad is a feminist response to Homer’s Odyssey. In Homer Penelope emerges as a virtuous, yet complex and powerful character who is regarded by later Greek tradition as the epitome of a respectable and faithful wife. The purpose of Atwood’s Penelope is to counter the Homeric tradition that portrays her as loyal and obedient. Atwood keeps close to Homeric events and story-line in her re-reading, however she subverts the archetype of the ‘Good Wife’. She portrays Penelope’s familiar Homeric behaviour as motivated from a self-serving perspective and a manner in which to gain power and preserve her reputation in the patriarchal society. In this way Atwood exposes the female suppression that is inherent in patriarchal society, as well as the duplicitous behaviour that is necessary to survive the system.

I argue that Margaret Atwood’s work in MaddAddam is about survival; it is about moving beyond preconceived, thoughtless ideology of any form with creative kinship. Cooperation and engagement cannot be planned in advance, and must take the form of something more than pre-established ideology. I will discuss MaddAddam in light of Donna Haraway’s recent work in which she argues that multispecies acknowledgement and collaboration are essential if humans are to survive and thrive in the coming centuries. By bringing the two texts into dialogue, one sees that Atwood’s novel constitutes the kind of story deemed necessary by Haraway for making kin in the Chthulucene. Various scenes depicting cooperation and interdependence among humans and other animals offer chthonic models of kinship; these relationships, as opposed to ideological and anthropocentric isolation, will serve as the means of surviving and thriving within an ongoing apocalypse. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

This thesis is a comparative study of two contemporary novels: Christa Wolf's: Cassandra (1983) and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985). / Wolf's Cassandra can be interpreted as a utopian projection. It is an expression of Wolf's not so modest proposal: "Literature today ought to be research on peace." / Atwood examines the underside of hope. While describing the present time as alarming, she speculates about the future. Juxtaposing the two novels provides a view of the political and philosophical imagination of the two authors. The cultural critique is esthetically expanded through the perspective of the protagonists. Both novels can be viewed as archeological work from a female perspective, as they attempt to provide a new vision by uncovering the blind spots of our western socio-political history.

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