Atwood's woman: The subversive force of feminine performances in 'Surfacing' and 'Alias Grace'

This thesis seeks to probe the identity of Woman as constructed by patriarchy through the rigorous use of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory in dialogue with the work of Margaret Atwood. The identity of Woman is often portrayed as inadequate, both to the women who attempt to fulfill it and to the men who want to see it. This inadequacy resides in the social pressures that bring subjects into conformity with a society of speaking beings that fosters these normative desires and identifications. However, the identity of Woman can never be whole because of the sacrifice both feminine and masculine speaking beings have to make in order to enter into language. Through a multi-layered reading of Surfacing and Alias Grace I show how it is through the feminine position's relation to this sacrifice that the identity of Woman may be subverted through conscious performances of femininity.