The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
The Uncanny whose presence at least refers back to Freud's 1919 essay of the same title has been reconsidered by critics in recent century. The uncanny is no more attributed merely to the realm of aesthetic or psychology as Freud attempted to explain. It is rather an interdisciplinary issue to...
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Shahid Beheshti University
2018-03-01
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doaj-37c7f71978ed42fca62a890fb065cf562021-09-02T10:07:15ZfasShahid Beheshti UniversityNaqd-i Zabān va Adabīyyāt-i Khārijī2008-73302588-70682018-03-01141933556833The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Taleرویا الهی0امیر علی نجومیان1دانشجو دکتری دانشگاه آزاد واحد تهران مرکزیدانشیار دانشگاه شهید بهشتیThe Uncanny whose presence at least refers back to Freud's 1919 essay of the same title has been reconsidered by critics in recent century. The uncanny is no more attributed merely to the realm of aesthetic or psychology as Freud attempted to explain. It is rather an interdisciplinary issue to discuss our modern anxieties such as migration, gender, history, etc. Margaret Atwood (1939- ) is a contemporary Canadian writer who has reconsidered history. What makes her different from other writers is the way she rereads history. This article is an attempt to study The Handmaid's Tale, her 1985 novel through the uncanny. In her novel, history is a narrative whose uncanny reading foregrounds the unrepresentable realities in relation to subject formation. Through the uncanny, history which has been taken for granted as a familiar, clear and unchangeable "fact" becomes a strange, ambiguous and alternate "sign". The theories of Sigmund Freud and Jean-François Lyotard are mainly consulted to delineate the uncanny and history and their tendency to foreground the unrepresentabilities of subject formation. In Atwood's novel, Language and memory function as two significant uncanny issues whose indecisive and abeyant nature shun any historical "fact" to actualize as a familiar, clear and unchangeable given. This in turn, keeps the reader incessantly in the state of indecision and ultimately renders the process of subject formation as unrepresentable.http://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article/view/19994امر نا/مأنوس – تاریخ - زبان – حافظه - زیگموند فروید - ژان- فرانسوا لیوتار- مارگارت اتوود |
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رویا الهی امیر علی نجومیان |
spellingShingle |
رویا الهی امیر علی نجومیان The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale Naqd-i Zabān va Adabīyyāt-i Khārijī امر نا/مأنوس – تاریخ - زبان – حافظه - زیگموند فروید - ژان- فرانسوا لیوتار- مارگارت اتوود |
author_facet |
رویا الهی امیر علی نجومیان |
author_sort |
رویا الهی |
title |
The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale |
title_short |
The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale |
title_full |
The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale |
title_fullStr |
The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Uncanny History and Unrepresentability of Subject formation in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale |
title_sort |
uncanny history and unrepresentability of subject formation in margaret atwood's the handmaid's tale |
publisher |
Shahid Beheshti University |
series |
Naqd-i Zabān va Adabīyyāt-i Khārijī |
issn |
2008-7330 2588-7068 |
publishDate |
2018-03-01 |
description |
The Uncanny whose presence at least refers back to Freud's 1919 essay of the same title has been reconsidered by critics in recent century. The uncanny is no more attributed merely to the realm of aesthetic or psychology as Freud attempted to explain. It is rather an interdisciplinary issue to discuss our modern anxieties such as migration, gender, history, etc. Margaret Atwood (1939- ) is a contemporary Canadian writer who has reconsidered history. What makes her different from other writers is the way she rereads history. This article is an attempt to study The Handmaid's Tale, her 1985 novel through the uncanny. In her novel, history is a narrative whose uncanny reading foregrounds the unrepresentable realities in relation to subject formation. Through the uncanny, history which has been taken for granted as a familiar, clear and unchangeable "fact" becomes a strange, ambiguous and alternate "sign". The theories of Sigmund Freud and Jean-François Lyotard are mainly consulted to delineate the uncanny and history and their tendency to foreground the unrepresentabilities of subject formation. In Atwood's novel, Language and memory function as two significant uncanny issues whose indecisive and abeyant nature shun any historical "fact" to actualize as a familiar, clear and unchangeable given. This in turn, keeps the reader incessantly in the state of indecision and ultimately renders the process of subject formation as unrepresentable. |
topic |
امر نا/مأنوس – تاریخ - زبان – حافظه - زیگموند فروید - ژان- فرانسوا لیوتار- مارگارت اتوود |
url |
http://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article/view/19994 |
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