Issue Details

MARGARET ATWOOD’S SURFACING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER ROLES AS VICTIMS

ABSTRACT

The 1972 novel Surfacing by Margaret Atwood is now considered a modern classic and has garnered attention from reviewers of various stripes. The Canadian author’s staunch feminism is reflected in the novel’s most memorable aspects. In light of the aforementioned analytical perspective, this study will focus on two aspects of Atwood’s work: gender and victimisation. So, a close reading of the work is conducted in order to identify and analyse the narrative’s primary examples of both elements. The story focuses mostly on the female characters (Anna and the protagonist, who remains nameless), who are both hypersexualized and victimised in the story’s patriarchal microcosms.

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