Female’s Subjectivity Construction

Margaret Atwood(1939-),the contemporary prominent Canadian writer,is regarded as the “Queen of Canadian Literature”.In Atwood’s works,death writing is recurrent and it is an important strategy to develop the plot,reflect the situations of female and construct female’s subjectivity.Atwood’s novels Surfacing,The Robber Bride and The Blind Assassin contain typical and abundant death phenomena,and all the three novels are related to female.However,few scholars have paid enough attention to death writing that the novels present.Thus,this thesis takes the three novels as research texts.Atwood’s life consciousness happens to coincide with views on death in Heidegger’s existentialism,and postmodern feminism takes female’s subjectivity construction as its core subject,which corresponds to the theme of the thesis.Therefore,the thesis chooses these two theories to study the three novels.The thesis interprets death atmospheres,death images and death reasons in the novels,analyzes the effects on females caused by others’ deaths and explores how females in the novels achieve subjectivity construction after experiencing others persons’ deaths.The definition of female subjectivity develops constantly.Postmodern feminism stresses the importance of female experience to subjectivity construction.It points out that females should have discourse power and express feelings as well as thinking on the basis of females’ real experience.Therefore,this thesis explores female’s subjectivity construction from three aspects: self pursuit,self narration and self returning.The thesis is made up of six chapters.Chapter one introduces studies of Atwood’s works at home and abroad,existentialism and postmodern feminism.Chapter two interprets the death writing and female’s self pursuit in Surfacing.That the nameless female protagonist faces others’ deaths motivates her to pursue the change of her identity,which shows female’s experience subject.Chapter three analyzes the relationship between the death writing and female’s self narration in The Robber Bride.Females’ self narration is a process,during which females can consider and judge on the basis of their subject experience.That reflects female’s thinking subject.Chapter four explores the death writing and female’s self returning in The Blind Assassin.To negotiate with the dead by female writing,female can shift from the accessory of male discourse to discourse subject so that she achieves self returning.That signifies female’s speaking subject.Chapter five explains the motivation of death writing and female’s subjectivity construction.Chapter six makes a conclusion of the thesis.By studying,the thesis finds that others’ deaths lead female characters in these three novels to make self pursuit,self narration and self returning respectively,which shows female’s experience subject,thinking subject and speaking subject.In these novels,self pursuit is the basis of female’s subjectivity construction;self narration is the further step;self pursuit and self narration are ultimately realized in self returning.The three elements are interrelated.Thus,female’s subjectivity construction in these three novels presents the development of Atwood’s understanding of female’s subjectivity construction.It is found that Atwood hopes females who are at a disadvantage can gain more attention and change their situation and that females can construct their subjectivity no matter what individual experience they have.Atwood expresses her care about females and her life attitude of establishing right life consciousness.