Mythological heroes, historical figures and characters of world literature in the works of Margaret Atwood

Naydenova Roksana Romanovna ORCID: 0000-0002-6821-3470 Postgraduate student, Department of Foreign Literature, Maxim Gorky Literature Institute 30/2 Baykalskaya str., Moscow, 107207, Russia roksa-moon@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

            Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) is a modern Canadian writer, poet and critic. Today she is one of the most widely read English-speaking authors in the world. Her works have received many awards and prizes. Among them are two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Prize, the Dublin Literary Prize and many others. M. Atwood started as a poet. Her first collection of poems, Double Persephone, was published in 1961. But the greatest popularity of the writer was brought by her large prose. M. Atwood's first novel, The Edible Woman, was published in 1969. And the first collection of short stories was published in 1977.

            The most popular book by the author to this day remains "The Handmaid's Tale", published in 1985. In 2019, the sequel "Testaments" was released. In second place is the fantastic trilogy "Mindless Addam", which includes the following novels: "Oryx and Crake" — 2003, "The Year of the Flood" — 2009 and "Mindless Addam" — 2013. M. Atwood refers all the above-listed works to the so-called conceptual or philosophical fiction (in the original: speculative fiction). The writer sees a strict difference between science fiction and conceptual fiction: science fiction talks about abstract and speculative things, while conceptual fiction works with what already exists now. Conceptual fiction focuses on one or another trend in the modern world (consumer society, the threat of environmental disaster, etc.) and tries to trace its path to its logical conclusion ^[11]. Hence the word "speculation" itself — that is, a certain view of the chosen problem. "The phrase speculative fiction was first used by the famous American science fiction writer Robert Hanline in 1947."^[7]

            No matter what literary direction M. Atwood works in, her works are always stories, complex multi—level narratives, in the center of which there is always the image of the narrator. The writer's texts are always the total space of her characters. M. Atwood, as a rule, does not allow himself a word "from himself". The reader is called upon to look at the worlds she created exclusively through the eyes of the characters. The will of the author himself is manifested in which of the characters to give the right to vote and in what order. Sometimes there is only one narrator in M. Atwood's books, as in the novels "The Edible Woman" and "Comprehension" (1972) or several, as in the novels "Life before People" (1979) and "The Blind Killer" (2000). But there may be a whole team of narrators, as in the trilogy "The foolish Addam." The narrators of M. Atwood is not an outside observer of events, they are involved in the action in the most direct way and are always the main characters of their own stories. The fate of the hero directly depends on his story, so he has many reasons to tell the truth and lie. ^[12] Readers and listeners in this situation act as judges and jurors at a court hearing, who decide to believe or not to believe the words of the hero, but they cannot be convinced of their correctness or falsity in any way.

            The image of the court is one of the most widespread in M.'s work. Atwood. It can be presented as a real court session, for example, in the novel "She is Grace" (1996), or as a posthumous trial of the hero's soul, as in the novel "Penelope" (2005), or as a court of descendants, for example, a symposium of scientists of the future in "The Handmaid's Tale and the Testaments".

            Following the tradition of postmodern literature, M. Atwood plays with characters and readers. Her narrators are often mythological heroes, real-life people, and even characters-allusions to other world-famous literary heroes. With the help of such references, M. Atwood modernizes and actualizes the eternal themes of human fate, creativity, justice and retribution for art: ["Such metamorphoses, such mobility, constancy and displacement of attributes and forces are a distinctive feature of myths and fairy tales, as well as serious Gothic literature. And, as shown by Atwood's seven published novels, her poetry, and other books, such metamorphoses can also be considered a hallmark of Margaret Atwood's muse."[10]

Next, we will look at specific examples of which mythological, historical and literary images M. is interested in. Atwood and what ideas of her own she connects them with.

Let's start with the mythological characters. The most favorite plot of the writer can be considered the myth of Odysseus' journey, as well as myths dedicated to the afterlife kingdom of Hades. However, despite the central figure of the king of Ithaca, the writer refers mainly to the female images of Odyssey ^[1]. Among them are Penelope, Elena, Circe, Penelope's maids, sirens and many others. So the novel "Penelopiade" is an attempt to rethink the famous myth from the point of view of Odysseus' wife, the devoted Penelope, which is already clear from the title of the book. There are two key narrators in Penelopiades: one is the Queen of Ithaca herself, the other is the collective voice of her maids. Penelope and the maids speak at a court hearing that is already taking place in the next world. Each side has its own version of events. Through arguments and the search for motives, M. Atwood gives the reader completely different versions of Penelope. From a faithful spouse, she turns into a cunning traitor and back again ^[6]. In poems dedicated to the relationship between Circe and Odysseus, from the collection "You are Happy" (1974), M. Atwood describes the characters on the magical island of timelessness. And again, the image of Circe prevails over the image of the guest. Circe is depicted tired, lost, she longs for a real life outside the magical island. Both Penelope, Circe, and the maids appear to readers as disappointed, lived-through women. Their complaints are addressed to us, the people of the 21st century. Mythological heroes of M. Atwood exists both in the past and in the present, they know about modernity no less than the listeners. And this is reflected in their cognition and way of thinking: "Even in the final part of the poem, when it seems that the heroine has returned to history, she speaks with self—detachment, which takes her consciousness beyond the time frame within which her body exists and where it is mainly defined as an object in a spatial scheme..."^[9] The stories of the heroines are a request for rethinking old views on the narrative in principle. By introducing initially minor characters into the story and giving them depth in the modern sense of the word, M. Atwood shows one myth from completely different sides, proving that history cannot have a single main character and the only correct point of view on what is happening. On the contrary, the change of focalization leads to the adaptation of the entire plot and the emergence of a new interpretation.

            In addition to archetypal and mythological images, M. Atwood often refers to real historical events and characters. According to the writer's observations, interest in historical and documentary prose in Canadian literature originated relatively recently. This is primarily due to the fact that the state of Canada itself is a fairly young education. And Canadian literature, even according to the most optimistic data, is no more than two hundred years old. The very concept of "Canadian literature" arose only in the middle of the last century. Modern Canadian writers of the older generation, to whom M. Atwood refers himself, remember the time when only English and American literature was taught in Canadian schools. Such a disdainful attitude towards their own culture lies in the colonial consciousness of Canadians, who are used to looking back at the metropolis and following the example of their powerful neighbor ^[8].

            M. Atwood positions himself precisely as a Canadian author. In his literary book "Survival: A Guide to Modern Canadian Literature" (1972), the author describes the main distinctive features of Canadian literature. The key to her concept is the dichotomy of the two main images — the victim and the torturer (in the original victimvictor). According to M. Atwood, Canadian authors, as a rule, write on behalf of the victim. As a tormentor, both specific persons, characters, and natural elements, evil fate, etc. can act.

            The main work of fiction by the writer, which touches on the topic of Canadian identity, is the famous novel "She is Grace", which tells about the fate of a real-life girl Grace Marks (1828-1873). In 1843, she was accused of conspiracy and double murder. The alleged accomplice was hanged, and Grace Marks was imprisoned in a mental hospital, and then in prison. The story of M. Atwood is an attempt to give Grace the floor herself. While in custody, the girl tells the story of her life to an American doctor who came to conduct his examination of the heroine's condition. Grace came to Canada from Ireland in search of a better life, but here she finds all the same poverty. Hard work, unfair employers, mistreatment, and then the court, the hospital and prison change the personality of the narrator. Having arrived as an Irishwoman, she leaves prison as a Canadian. So, it would seem, a detective story against the background of historical events turns into a story about growing up and becoming a young country ^[3].

            Often M. Atwood turns to ready-made plots, famous literary characters. One example is the novel "Cat's Eye" (1988), which reveals the theme of a woman's childhood, complex relationships between teenagers ^[4]. The main character and narrator Elaine suffers from bullying from Cordelia's once good friend. Her friend's name is a direct reference to the tragedy of Shakespeare's King Lear. Only in the book by M. Atwood, Cordelia, on the contrary, turns out to be the worst of her friends. Despite the difficult relationship, the fates of Elaine and Cordelia turn out to be inextricably linked: every time Elaine's business goes up, Cordelia experiences failure and vice versa. Cordelia becomes the muse and doppelganger of the main character ^[5]. The plot of another novel "The Robber Bride" (1993) is built around the struggle of the three main characters with the insidious Zenya, which is a direct allusion to the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "The Robber Groom": "The title of the novel is an allusion to one of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales, "The Bride Thief", in which an attractive young man entered the he trusted the girls, declared himself their fiance, and then took them to his castle and there put them to a painful death — by analogy with how Zinia acted with seduced men" ^[2]. In one of the writer's most famous works, The Blind Killer, the main character Iris writes a memoir about her late younger sister Laura. The novel touches on the painful themes of sorophobia — the fear of a sister and rivalry between close people. The mysterious Laura is a reference to the image of Laura Petrarch. Laura in the novel "The Blind Killer" also acts as an inspiration and muse for her surviving older sister.

            Resorting to allusions to the heroes of world literature, M. Atwood always greatly changes, reverses the original image. Those heroes who are perceived in the general consciousness as positive — Cordelia, Laura — acquire the features of dark doppelgangers, mockingbirds. Those who are usually portrayed as negative — the robber groom — become saviors and helpers.

            Touching upon mythological, historical and general literary subjects and their characters in his work, M. Atwood seeks to rethink and rework established patterns and concepts in order to awaken new interest in them and discover facets not yet considered in them. A special way of storytelling — in the first person — allows the characters themselves to tell about themselves in a manner peculiar only to them. Such focalization allows us to trace the work of human consciousness on the example of literary heroes. The questions about the interaction of memory and fantasy, about the perception of time and space, raised by the writer from book to book, are relevant in many areas of modern science, philosophy and literature.