On Atwood's Ambivalence

An eminent leader of Canadian literature,Margaret Atwood shows her concern about gender problem and ecological problem in most of her works.The Edible Woman is a typical work which reflects her feminist and ecological ideas.Many researchers study this novel from the feminist perspective and ecological perspective,and opine that it expresses Atwood's idea of opposing androcentrism and anthropocentrism.This thesis explores Atwood's ambivalence about androcentrism and anthropocentrism in The Edible Woman in light of Derrida's deconstruction theory,and reveals the reasons that lead to her contradictory attitudes.The deconstructive approach to the novel frees the reader from the traditional and stereotyped interpretation and benefits them for a further understanding of it.The thesis is divided into three parts: Introduction,the main body and Conclusion.The introduction part briefly introduces the author and her work under study,and makes a literature review.The main body of the thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One is an overview of deconstruction theory,which introduces Derrida's deconstruction theory and its development in America and explains its double strategy as a reading model.Chapter Two and Chapter Three practice the deconstructive reading of the novel and reveal Atwood's conflicting attitudes towards androcentrism and anthropocentrism.Chapter Two reveals how Atwood deconstructs the two pairs of binary oppositions of man/woman and human/nature by subverting the underlying hierarchical order in the oppositions,which shows her writing purpose of opposing androcentrism and anthropocentrism.Chapter Three reveals how Atwood's novel reconstructs the hierarchy in the two pairs of binary oppositions by consolidating some traditional values inherent in the hierarchy.By doing this,the thesis shows that Atwood has an ambivalence towards androcentrism and anthropocentrism,which not only disrupts her writing purpose but also leads to the self-deconstruction of the novel.The conclusion part explores the reasons for Atwood's ambivalence and,meanwhile,summarizes the whole thesis.In the novel,although Atwood shows contradictory attitudes towards androcentrism and anthropocentrism and doesn't offer definite solutions to the gender and ecological problems,she successfully arouses the reader's awareness of these problems in the 20th-century Western societies,which still remain the problems of this world to this day.