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.

ix, 60 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The revisionist narrative is a sub-genre of postmodernist literature, in which established narratives are re-written from a perspective for which they did not account. This term goes beyond "historiographic metafiction" to include fictional narratives, because both historical and fictional narratives can illustrate many possible representations for the event in question. The treatment of space and place are central points at which revisionist narratives expose dominant power systems during the author's own era and offer new possibilities of reality to the readers. Georg Johannesen's play Kassandra and Christa Wolf's novel Kassandra change the perspective of landscape in Homer's The Iliad to reveal underlying power structures and to emphasize the rejection of absolute truths; these power structures in ancient Troy then point to parallel power structures in the contemporary societies of the authors. In this manner, landscape within revisionist narratives is essential for exposing the malleability of perspective in history and fiction. / Committee in Charge: Dr. Susan C. Anderson, Co-Chair; Dr. Ellen Rees, Co-Chair; Dr. Martin Klebes; Dr. Kenneth Scott Calhoon

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