Resisting Aphasia

Margaret Atwood is universally acknowledged as the most prominent writer in contemporary Canadian literature, and she is best known for her masterpiece The Blind Assassin, which is a Booker Prize winner and a nomination for the Nobel Prize in 2001. The seeking of self-consciousness and identity in the network of power politic relations has always been one of Atwood's major concerns. This thesis focuses on the exploration of this theme, and attempts to make a preliminary analysis on the main characters'living conditions and their situation of being trapped in a discourse predicament. With the employment of Foucault's analysis of power and discourse, this thesis tries to gain a better insight of the characters'struggle for their own voice and self-identification under the power control.According to Foucault, power is ubiquitous and therefore the conflict between power and discourse existing in all kinds of human relationships. Through close reading, it is apparent the symptoms of"aphasia"occur in all the main characters. And in Foucault's opinion, there are no relations of power without resistances, similarly, in the novel the characters'resistance against the permeating power control has never ceased. Unable to articulate in their natural voice, they resort to various indirect and disguised ways to tell their story for the purpose of pursuing the authority discourse belonging to their own.Many critics label this novel a feminist work, and others often focus on its artistic technique and postmodern elements. In fact, it is more than a feminist novel, and the narrative techniques she adopted are closely linked with her thematic concerns. Each of the three layers of narrative is a manifestation of the struggle against dominant power and attempts to articulate. In her experimental style, Atwood unfolds for us the price for the characters to express and their resistance against aphasia.Through the act of writing, as the only survivor, the protagonist Iris strives to come to terms with the dead, and resolves to reconstruct the elusive past, the combination of which leads to the deconstruction of power. These all serve to enhance the theme of the long journey of individuals to achieve discourse power, understanding, and furthermore the truth. As far as themes and narratives techniques of the novel are concerned, Atwood made breakthroughs in both.