Engendering Metafiction: Textuality and Closure in Margaret Atwood's<i>Alias Grace</i>

Ingersoll, Earl G.

doi:10.1080/02722010109481600

Cited by 10 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…These issues are reflected in numerous papers which have addressed Grace's guilt or innocence, her unreliability as a narrator, and the genre of the novel. A number of scholars (Wilson 2000;Ingersoll 2001;Bruun 2012) have explored the complex interplay of historical and fictional epigraphs in the novel, and the way they self-consciously comment on and contrast with the author's text, sometimes contradicting each other, as when Atwood uses excerpts from Grace's and McDermott's confessions to show how historical texts are, more often than not, different versions of the same event (cf. Wilson 226,Bruun 196).…”

Section: Alias Grace -A Historical Novel?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing the Pattern: Reclaiming History, Constructing Herstory in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace

Sentov

2019

FLL

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This paper will examine how Grace Marks, the female protagonist/narrator of Alias Grace (1996), reclaims her history, which is comprised of many different, often contradictory stories of her life and the crime for which she is imprisoned. These stories reflect the dominant discourse of a conservative male-dominated society, in which Grace is an outsider, due to her gender, class, age, and immigrant status. The law, the medical profession, the church, and the media all see Grace as a disruptive element: a woman who committed or assisted in a murder, a lunatic and/or a member of the working class who dared disturb the social order. Grace is revealed not as a passive victim, an object to be acted upon, but as an agent capable of reclaiming history and constructing herstory, challenging and defying the expectations of dominant social structures. The paper will show that Alias Grace, as a novel giving voice to the marginalized and the silenced, stands as a compelling work that examines and provides insights into the position of women and its changes over the course of history, provoking a discourse that remains relevant today

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Section: Alias Grace -A Historical Novel?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing the Pattern: Reclaiming History, Constructing Herstory in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace

Sentov

2019

FLL

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“…Con su alegoría doble del acto de lectura y de producción textual, la novela de Atwood inquiere en los mecanismos por los cuales atribuimos significado al texto y hace de la incertidumbre creada en torno a Marks un arma con la que abrir un espacio para minar el poder de los discursos patriarcales que han invertido su esfuerzo en deslegitimar las narrativas femeninas. Desde su testimonio, Marks recupera ese espacio, y la auto-reflexividad con la que lo hace convierte su texto y la novela de Atwood en lo que Engler denomina "arche-stories of the ironic or subversive type" (1994: 33;Ingersoll 2001). Esto es, historias que, empeñadas en endeudarse con la reconstrucción del pasado, acaban por evidenciar la futilidad de la reconstrucción.…”

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“In the Apocrypha”: Metaficción historiográfica, testimonio y la escritura de una historia marginal en Alias Grace, de Margaret Atwood

Rodríguez¹

2017

ODISEA

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Resumen: La novela de Margaret Atwood Alias Grace (1996) rescribe el archivo histó-rico para hacer sitio en él a un relato marginal, la historia de la convicta canadiense de origen irlandés Grace Marks. Recurriendo a la metaficción historiográfica, Atwood dota de poder a Marks para que inscriba una visión marcada en términos de género sexual de aquellos acontecimientos que la condujeron a prisión como una de las asesinas de Thomas Kinnear y Nancy Montgomery. Este artículo explora la autobiografía testimonial producida por Grace Marks como medio para deslegitimar las versiones documentales de su caso. La subjetividad de Marks, como autora y lectora de lo que se publicó sobre ella, alteran el registro oficial a través de un modo auto-reflexivo que impregna de forma similar sus palabras, la novela de Atwood y la escritura de historia y ficción. Así, la novela queda circunscrita en las corrientes metaficticias contemporáneas que rescriben los marcos del acto de enunciación, y como consecuencia, investigan las figuras del autor y lector y capacitan a éste en la producción de significado textual. Palabras clave: metaficción historiográfica, Margaret Atwood, marginalidad histórica, narrativa canadiense. Grace (1996) rewrites the historical archive to make room in it for a marginal story, that of the Irish Canadian convict Grace Marks. Resorting to historiographical metafiction, Atwood empowers Marks to inscribe a gendermarked view of the events that led her to prison as one of the murderers of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery. This paper explores the testimonial autobiography produced by Grace Marks as a means to delegitimate the documentary versions of her case. Marks' subjectivity as author and reader of what has been issued on her, alter the official record. This is carried out through a self-reflexive mood that equally taints her words, Atwood's novel and the writing of history and story. Thus, the novel is circumscribed within the contemporary metafictional trends that restructure the frames of the act of enunciation, and, as a consequence, investigate the roles of author and reader and enable the latter in the production of textual meaning. Abstract: Margaret Atwood's novel Alias

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Alias Grace

Howells¹

2005

Margaret Atwood

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Engendering Metafiction: Textuality and Closure in Margaret Atwood'sAlias Grace

Cited by 10 publications

References 6 publications

Changing the Pattern: Reclaiming History, Constructing Herstory in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace

Changing the Pattern: Reclaiming History, Constructing Herstory in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace

“In the Apocrypha”: Metaficción historiográfica, testimonio y la escritura de una historia marginal en Alias Grace, de Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace

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