Myth as the foundation of the narrative 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 Baikalskaya str., Moscow, 107207, Russia roksa-moon@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

Margaret Atwood (born 1939) is a contemporary Canadian writer, poet, and critic. Today she is one of the most famous English-language authors in the world. Her books have won many awards and prizes, including the Booker Prize, the Governor General of Canada Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and many others. M. Atwood is also considered one of the main contenders for the Nobel Prize. The author's first published book was the collection of poems "Double Persephone", released in 1961. However, M. Atwood gained the greatest popularity due to her prose works. Her first novel, The Edible Woman, was published in 1969, and her first collection of short stories, Dancing Girls, was published in 1977.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and show the importance of myth in the construction of narratives in the works of M. Atwood. The object of the research is novels and short stories by the Canadian writer. The subject of this study is the role of myth in the construction of narrative by M. Atwood. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that this topic is poorly covered in Russian literary criticism. The research uses cultural-historical, cultural-social and narrative methods.

The most famous book by M. Atwood today is "The Handmaid's Tale", published in 1985. In 2019, he received a sequel, "Testaments". M. Atwood refers these works to the so-called speculative fiction (in the original: speculative fiction) ^[1]. The writer sees a strict difference between science fiction and speculative fiction: science fiction talks about abstract and speculative things, while speculative fiction works with what already exists now. Speculative fiction focuses on a particular trend in the modern world (consumer society, the threat of environmental disaster, etc.) and tries to trace its path to its logical conclusion ^[2]. Hence the very word "speculation" — that is, a certain view of the chosen problem.

No matter what direction M. Atwood works in, her works are always a complex, multi—level narrative, with the narrator at the center. A narrative is a chain of interrelated events formed into a single integral work. The closest concepts to the term narrative are "narration" and "story". The word "narrative" itself comes from the Latin word narrare – "to tell". So "in Russian, the word "narrative" is borrowed and comes from the Latin narrative — to tell, being related to the Latin gnarus — to know. Thus, the very etymology of this concept captures the idea of translating existing "knowledge” into “storytelling." By telling, a person not only traces the sequence of events, but also interprets, learns about the surrounding reality and himself" ^[3].

The concept of narrative came to literature from historiography and spread widely in the second half of the 20th century. in the era of postmodernism. The term originated in the works of Roland Barthes (France), Arnold Toynbee (Great Britain), Paul Ricoeur (France), Frank Kermode (Great Britain). And also Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp, who introduced the concept of "narratema" for a smaller division of the plot. Narratemes are the key points of a narrative, individual situations from which the plot is formed.

In this case, the complex narrative is not an accident, but an intentional architectural construction. M. Atwood is a literary critic by profession and has herself made a significant contribution to the study of narrative: "Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature" (1972), "Negotiations with the Dead: A Writer about Writing" (2002), etc. Her alma mater is the University of Toronto, where she attended a course of lectures by the world-renowned philologist and folklorist Northrop Fry (1912-1991). Acquaintance with N. Fry's mythological theory prompted her to further study the structure of myth, and was also reflected in many of the author's works of fiction ^{[4, 5]}.

The main idea of ritual-mythological theory is that literature is based on ritual and myth. Thus, the core of any story, a logical chain of interrelated events, is an irrational ritual action. Since primitive times, the art of storytelling has undergone major changes: a written culture has emerged, many trends and genres have emerged, but the essence has remained the same. According to N. Fry, the whole modern civilization consists of a limited number of primitive elements of ritual and mythological primitive culture. Over time, these elements have become more complex, but their meaning has not changed. These simplest units can be compared with the letters of the alphabet of a certain universal language of images, which was used and is used by absolutely all authors. It is impossible to get out of this system, since any modern cultural codes are its products. Fry's conclusions clearly echo those of his contemporary Joseph Campbell (1904-1987). Only if J. Campbell calls for updating outdated mythology, while Fry argues that mythology is everywhere and always the same, there is no progress or development in it, only its elements have become much more complex over the years.

After the University of Toronto, M. Atwood enters Harvard (1961) and has been working on his dissertation for several years, which he has not completed. She focuses on fantasy literature from the Victorian era. The young researcher claims to have invented a new genre — the English metaphysical novel — but the work comes to a dead end due to difficulties in describing its boundaries. M. Atwood herself, recalling her years at Harvard, characterizes the metaphysical novel as containing descriptions of supernatural, quasi-supernatural or even divine beings. The metaphysical novel was distinguished from classical fiction by its lack of interest in the scientific side of the issue. M. Atwood led the history of the new genre from George MacDonald and Henry Haggard to Clive Lewis and John Tolkien ^[6].

From the path of direct creative activity that preceded it, two main topics of interest to the future author become clear: myth as the basis of modern culture and rethinking the boundaries already created in culture. Both of these major themes will be reflected in the work of the writer. The idea of an unfinished dissertation will be transferred to fantasy novels, which will give impetus to the development of a new direction — speculative fiction. And the myth will become the main foundation for the work of M. Atwood ^{[7, 8]}.

The role of myth in the work of M. Atwood has received considerable attention in domestic and foreign studies. However, most of them were devoted only to the analysis of one work by the Canadian writer — "Penelopias", whose connection with the ancient Greek myth is obvious. And many similar studies have been built around M.'s feminist agenda. Atwood, although the writer herself has never considered herself to be a feminist ^[9]. E. V. Grankina ^[7], O. A. Fedosyuk ^[8], A. I. Subbotina ^[10], M. V. Artamonova ^[11], S. Judge ^[12] and others addressed the topic of gender using the example of robots with a myth in the Penelopade.

The novel "Comprehension" and the story "Isis in Darkness" were a little less "lucky", in which the mythological base is still as obvious, but not directly presented as in "Penelope". The novel "Comprehension", which refers to the "universal myth" by J. Campbell, and the story "Isis in Darkness", based on ancient Egyptian mythology, take place in modern Canada. And in studying these two works, researchers, as a rule, focus on the theme of "carnivalization" of reality, mixing the real and the imaginary.

L. S. Kuchmarenko traces in the story "Isis in Darkness" how accurately M. Atwood follows the ancient Egyptian myth, "transplanting" it to Canadian soil ^[13]. G. Green talks about how through the prism of the ancient Egyptian plot M. Atwood follows the ancient Egyptian myth. Atwood describes the Canadian identity ^[14]. R. Z. Khairullin ^{[15, 16]} follows the same path in the study of the novel "Comprehension".

All other works by M. Atwood, as a rule, remain in the shadows, although almost all of them contain explicit and hidden references to the mythology of different countries. In this article, we have tried to systematize M.'s approach. Atwood's approach to the myth and analyze this approach, touching on the author's various texts.

The main part

Despite the wide variety, almost all popular modern trends are touched upon in M. Atwood's books: multiculturalism, eco-activism, and the problem of child violence at school — all of them, in fact, are built on the same mythological model.

The writer's texts are the total space of her characters. Almost every author's work is narrated in the first person. Storytellers of M. Atwood is not an outside observer of any events, but a direct participant in what is happening. Storytellers, as a rule, are both the main characters and the center of the whole story ^[17].

The stories of the heroes are of a biographical nature ^[18]. The gift of storytelling comes to them at a time of mental crisis, when they do not know how to live on. As a rule, storytellers are already mature, mature personalities who have achieved some success. Once at a crossroads, they mentally return to the past and go through their entire journey anew, rethinking the past in a new way. In this case, the process of narration is inextricably linked with the process of cognition. This connection of concepts is reflected in the term "narrative", which comes from the Latin verb "to tell", which in turn is associated with the verb "to know".

This narrative of the biography is very similar to the "universal myth" of J. Campbell, described in his book "The Thousand-Faced Hero". And, indeed, the author's characters follow the same path, but only in their imagination. Their journey into the past takes place in the space of a story, self-discovery. In the world of M. Atwood equates a word with an action. And the myth is thus transferred to the sphere of the mechanisms of human thinking. By M. Atwood, people think in myths, stories. By telling, they recreate themselves and their past, and offer their own interpretation.

Storytelling, creation of a myth in the world of M. Atwood is directly related to creativity. This refers us to the idea of myth as the process of creating the world. In this case, narrative and myth imply the same action – rethinking, explaining the world through a story about the world.

So, M. Atwood's first step in working with myth is to use the myth itself as a narrative, a plot. Most often, the role of the foundation is played by J. Campbell's "universal myth", which, according to the researcher himself, is the quintessence of all more or less well-known world myths. J. Campbell has often been criticized for populism and excessive generalization, however, for M. Atwood, his theory looks the most promising, as it provides a large space for attaching accompanying meanings and decorations at subsequent stages of the work.

A distinctive feature in the processing of the universal myth by M. Atwood is a special emphasis on the initiation ritual, the interpretation of which the author is very close to the ideas of V. Propp. Only in M. Atwood, the beginning of the hero's journey and his initiation are constantly painted in gloomy, pessimistic tones. The hero begins to tell the story, pushed by a mental crisis ^[19]. History is his only chance to break the deadlock. Next, the path to the past begins, where the childhood of the hero appears before the reader. As a rule, at this stage, the hidden psychological trauma of the hero, which he received as a child, is revealed. The following is a description of the struggle with this trauma in his youth. This is where initiation takes place. To win, the hero decides to commit ritual suicide. In the process of initiation, the hero changes his name, thereby burying his past self, or changes his place of residence, as if entering another world, or changes his own appearance, abandoning his former attributes.

The first stage can best be considered using the example of the novel "Lady Oracle" (1976). The main character of the novel, Joanne, faced the condemnation of her peers and adults in childhood because of her extraordinary appearance. In her youth, she voluntarily undergoes initiation: she changes her name and leaves for another country. However, having achieved success in the literary field, she falls into a mental crisis, which forces her to make a mental journey into the past.

At the first stage, M. Atwood borrows the structure of the myth. At the second stage, she connects certain cultural and national features to it. The mythological structure acquires a specific color ^[20].

Here it is necessary to point out the specific atmosphere that prevailed in the middle of the 20th century in Canada. M. Atwood's generation studied English and American literature in schools. There was no such thing as "Canadian literature" in those years. It was only in the 60s and 70s that Canadians began to take an interest in their own literature. One of the milestones in this process was M. Atwood's book "Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature", published in 1972. In this guide, the writer tried to systematize the achievements of Canadian authors and predict the further development of Canadian culture. M. Atwood positions himself as a Canadian author. In his literary book Survival: A Guide to Modern Canadian Literature (1972), the author describes the main distinguishing 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. The role of the tormentor can be played by specific persons, characters, as well as natural elements, evil fate, etc. ^{[21, 22]}

When trying to analyze, the main paradox of Canadian literature was revealed: the leap from myth immediately into postmodernism. M. Atwood put it this way: "The interest in Canada's past for writers of my generation was partly an interest in the unknown – the mysterious, buried, forgotten, discarded, tabooed" ^[23].

The myth in Canadian culture is primarily associated with the world of nature, which is cruel and mysterious. And with postmodernism comes the city and modern trends, including the growing ambitions of Canadian writers. It is noteworthy that it was M. Atwood who became one of the first Canadian authors to achieve worldwide recognition ^[4].

The basis of Canadian culture is M. Atwood searched, among other things, in mythology. The peculiarity of Canadian mythology lies in its multiculturalism. On one side are the ancient myths of the Native Americans of Canada, on the other — the European heritage. M. Atwood characterizes Canadians as settlers — that is, something in between colonizers and aborigines. The Canadian myth is primarily an Indian myth, but its characters are alien to this myth ^[24].

This paradox is clearly seen in the novel Comprehension (1972), which describes the return of an unnamed heroine from the English-speaking part of Canada to her homeland in Quebec. Once in Quebec, the heroine finds herself back in her native, but alien, space of a different culture, and hence myth ^{[25, 26]}. The heroine's path is also the path from civilization to nature, from maturity to childhood, from the present to the past, from consciousness to the subconscious.

The nameless heroine is a deeply traumatized person. She had an abortion according to her lover's instructions and is now trying to forget about it. However, temporary ritual oblivion ceases to operate on the territory of someone else's myth and culture. Once in her native backwater, the heroine finds herself in the space of an ancient Indian myth, which she does not understand. The text constantly emphasizes the dumbness and blindness of the heroine, she finds cave paintings of disappeared Indians and cannot make them out. It is only when she is imbued with the forces of nature that she finds a spiritual connection with the primitive culture that existed here before.

Finding oneself here is directly related to returning to the collective unconscious (Carl Jung). So the main episode of the novel is the immersion of the heroine in the water of a lake, next to which Native American symbols were inscribed. While diving, the girl finds her missing father at the bottom of the lake. The horror of what he saw accumulates long-standing memories. Along with the grief of the father comes the grief of the unborn child. This shock, in the end, helps the heroine to survive a mental crisis and start a new life.

That is, at the second stage of working with the myth, the myth becomes the basis for national culture.

At the third stage, the myth is actualized to become a platform for discussions about modernity. It is no coincidence that J. Campbell said that modern man needs a modern myth. In this case, the myth is used to criticize and expose social and cultural stereotypes. The greatest number of the author's works have been created at this level. This way of working with the myth seems to be the most productive for M. Atwood.

Postmodernism has left its mark on the work of M. Atwood with a myth. One of the author's main tools is the game. The writer constantly turns over ancient plots, shifts accents, and comes to unexpected conclusions. But her postmodern game is not destructive, because there is nothing to destroy and disassemble in Canadian culture yet, but, on the contrary, it is creative, collective. Playing with one ancient myth, M. Atwood tries to create a new one, more relevant to her time and culture ^{[4, 27]}.

The most beloved myth of M. Atwood was and still is the myth of Odysseus' voyage. Her most "antique" novel "Penelope" (2005) is dedicated to him. But, following the game, M. Atwood shifts attention from the central figure of the ancient myth of the king of Ithaca to his wife Penelope, and the confrontation between Penelope and Helen of Troy turns out to be in the center of the plot ^[4]. It is worth mentioning that for M. Atwood, a favorite technique is to replace the main characters of the myth with secondary ones: "By analogy with Homer's Odyssey, The Penelope was supposed to be a story about the heroine's wanderings.… The journey made by the protagonist is rather symbolic. This is, on the one hand, a movement into the depths of one's Self, a path of self-knowledge, on the other hand, an approach to historical origins, the realization of truth-seeking aspirations, an attempt to establish the truth" ^[28].

So, before us is the struggle between Penelope and Helen of Troy, which, in the view of M. Atwood, develops into a struggle between two main female archetypes and stereotypes: on the one hand, the ideal of a devoted wife, on the other, la femme fatale, a femme fatale who destroys men. These two main poles have defined the attitude towards women for thousands of years and serve as guidelines for the creation of new images ^[4]: "Homeric Greece created two significant and in many ways opposite ideals — the image of Helen, the personification of self—sufficient beauty, which brings with it quarrels between men and is the cause of wars, and the image of Penelope - the personification of submission, loyalty, devotion, and patience" ^[29].

The last fourth step in working with myth is the use of myth to develop philological theories, speculations about the literary process, as well as conversations about the purpose of the artist.

One of the main books in this area is "Negotiations with the Dead: A Writer about Writing" (2002), in which M. Atwood postulates his view of creativity as "negotiations with the dead." In this case, the Creator acts as a medium and a priest who must propitiate the spirits ^[19].

The writer highlights the desire to overcome mortality as the main motivation for creativity. In support of this idea, the author cites the story of Dante and Beatrice. In M. Atwood's understanding, a person creates in order to capture a passing image forever. In this way, creativity becomes inseparable from the work of memory. Art and human memory, in the author's view, are the only refuge from death, which is primarily perceived as oblivion ^[30].

The narrators of the writer are also engaged in perpetuation. In one of her main novels, "The Blind Killer" (2000), there is an explicit reference encoded in the names of the two main characters, sisters. The eldest, who leads the story, is called Iris (Iris, the messenger of the gods), and the youngest, who is mentioned in the story, is called Laura, that is, Laura. So, returning to the image of Dante and Beatrice — the creator and the muse, it should be said that in the view of M. Atwood, the muse is an active principle, and the creator obeys her instructions. The muses are the very "dead" with whom you need to establish a connection, avenge them, and restore justice. The Creator undertakes this difficult task. It turns out that creativity has a lot to do with witchcraft and superstition.

The heroes of M. Atwood is created to give new life to long-gone dear people. The heroes' memory appears as a third dimension, a virtual world in which there is no passage of time and death is impossible. In this space of timelessness, people and events can exist simultaneously, which in reality were in no way connected with each other. The only thread between them is the story of the narrator.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it should be said that all the work of M. Atwood is built on a myth anyway. Myth can be used as the foundation and narrative grid of the entire history at the first stage, or as a sign of national character at the second, or as a platform for criticism of social stereotypes at the third, or as a ground for philological and philosophical discussions about the principles of art at the fourth. In any case, M. Atwood's books and their popularity prove that in society, in every person, even if he is not familiar with such concepts as myth or narrative, mythological patterns live. And people still continue to perceive and explore the world through history.