Living Experience And Pursuit Of Subjectivity

Drawing on Lefebvre's “spatial triad” and Michel Foucault's body space and heterotopia theories,this thesis aims to investigate the meaningful spaces in Margret Atwood's The Blind Assassin.The spaces examined fall into three categories,i.e.the physical space,heterotopia and representation of space.Focusing on these three spaces,the thesis will analyze their interrelation with Iris the female protagonist,especially through her personal experience and pursuit of subjectivity.Firstly,the physical space includes the house,Iris' s body and the city space,all of which are Iris' s representational space—the third one in Lefebvre's “spatial triad”—signifying Iris' s individual experience that bears witness of patriarchy,repression and national trauma.They represent Iris' s suffering in familial sacrifice,war-torn family,the loss of house and national history.Secondly,the heterotopia space in the mirror reflects Iris' s multiple personas and her various responsibilities in the domestic area.The mirror fails to bring out Iris' s real reflection,which suggests the fact of her objectification in her marriage.Thus the heterotopia world offers to show Iris' s different aspects of selfhood,enabling her to reexamine her loss of subjectivity.Last,representation of space is the third one in the novel.As an abstract and conceived one according to Lefebvre's theories,it refers to the spaces Iris constructed by herself,including the sci-fi space and another dimension space paralleled with the real one.Representation of space is Iris' s attempt to restore her subjectivity.