<p>The aim of this thesis is to examine the impact that clothing has in Margaret Atwood’s novel <em>The Blind Assassin</em> from 2000. The essay begins with a brief overview of how clothing has been acknowledged in different areas of research. The overview leads up to the conclusion that fashion, as well as clothing in large, has been overly ignored as a potentially fruitful subject of academic status. This is much due to the fact that fashion is traditionally regarded as being a classically feminine subject, as well as it can be said to be a result of fashion’s very elusive character. In the analysis of the novel the text first discusses the role that clothing has in a societal perspective as a means of power, partly in relation to Girard’s erotic triangle, as well as in relation to gender and Atwood’s dystopian parallel story. The essay then focuses on the naked body, which is found to be non-existing in Atwood’s novel, and goes on to discuss the suggestive qualities that clothing is given in the novel. In the concluding part, the results of the research is summed up and I am able to draw the conclusion that clothing has a great significance in <em>The Blind Assassin</em>, together with the notion that literary criticism is in need of a discourse that acknowledges clothing and fashion theory as academic subjects.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to examine the impact that clothing has in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Blind Assassin from 2000. The essay begins with a brief overview of how clothing has been acknowledged in different areas of research. The overview leads up to the conclusion that fashion, as well as clothing in large, has been overly ignored as a potentially fruitful subject of academic status. This is much due to the fact that fashion is traditionally regarded as being a classically feminine subject, as well as it can be said to be a result of fashion’s very elusive character. In the analysis of the novel the text first discusses the role that clothing has in a societal perspective as a means of power, partly in relation to Girard’s erotic triangle, as well as in relation to gender and Atwood’s dystopian parallel story. The essay then focuses on the naked body, which is found to be non-existing in Atwood’s novel, and goes on to discuss the suggestive qualities that clothing is given in the novel. In the concluding part, the results of the research is summed up and I am able to draw the conclusion that clothing has a great significance in The Blind Assassin, together with the notion that literary criticism is in need of a discourse that acknowledges clothing and fashion theory as academic subjects.