A Physical Battlefield: A Study On Margaret Atwood’s Two Novels From The Perspective Of Body Politics

This thesis aims to explore the body and power relations in The Edible Woman and The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood.Atwood has created a large number of unique and unforgettable images which feature the nervous tension on the bodies,such as Marian’s anorexia in The Edible Woman,Elaine’s self-injury in Cat’s Eye,and the walking wombs— Handmaids,etc.If her first novel The Edible Woman on the topic “body and power” still appears vague and tentative,The Handmaid’s Tale,a classic and representative work,is the other way round.This novel proves to be a masterpiece which sheds much light on Atwood’s attitude towards “body and politics”.Meanwhile,through the analysis of The Edible Woman and The Handmaid’s Tale,this thesis finds that bodies,especially female bodies are disciplined and trained by the patriarchy society.On the other hand,body is also a stronghold for females to counter-conduct against oppression.Foucault’s theory about bodies is adopted to explain the body and power relationship in the two novels.Ideas from some related feminists such as Beauvoir,Judith Butler and so on are also quoted to support this thesis.There are three chapters in total.Chapter one centers on the individual bodies and a detailed analysis is given to the rules of categorization of all humans,and the chronological and spatial control of bodily behaviors which lies in the scope of disciplinary power.Chapter two,from the perspective of population,endeavors to study how biopower controls the birth rate,people’s lifespan,and mortality of the whole population.Through the above-mentioned analysis,it is not difficult for the author of this thesis to find that the defined and disciplined body is also counterattacking the power all the time.Therefore,chapter three dwells on the analysis of the various counter-conducts in the two novels,exploring how the female characters obtain their own freedom step by step and rediscover their self-hood.It is this kind of counter-conduct that highlights Foucault’s dynamic and changeable “body and power”relation.To sum up,this thesis argues that in the two novels Atwood illustrates her notion that the power relations are omnipresent which put people under surveillance and control,but the subjectivity of the body cannot be ignored for the fact that the body has also carried out positive counter-conducts,which brings about the awakening of females’ self-consciousness and their pursuit of spiritual freedom.In the meanwhile,through the analysis,this thesis arrives at a conclusion that Atwood’s view on power and body gradually becomes mature.From some clues to this issue in The Edible Woman to the in-depth thinking in The Handmaid’s Tale,this mirrors Atwood’s long-term literary ponderings and artistic maturity.