Ambiguities of Counter-Hegemonic Monologism in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing :: Essays Papers

Ambiguities of Counter-Hegemonic Monologism in Marg atomic number 18t Atwoods SurfacingIn his make Ideologies of Epic, Colin whole meal flour looks at the recognisable tendency of Victorian epic verse to establish or attempt to establish a monologic deal in relation to the concept of nation, national literature and empire. Epic as musical style and the concept of nation, . . . desiring to be centripetal, turning in upon themselves, denying the existence of the otherwisewise (Graham,1), is a phenomenon relevant to monologic discourse as it may be perceive not only in national epic but as well as in the novel and its concomitant ideologies.Graham points to the evolution in literary history, the move towards the adjectival use of the word epic, especially with regard to the work of Wordsworth and George Eliot. He notes, . . . the feminising and privatising of the once-public, turning narratives of action into narratives of the drama of selfhood. (Graham,4)In a post-colonial context and in the geographical context of Canada one behind see in Surfacing how Atwood asserts a feminist counter hegemonic discourse with and within a discursive framing of Canadian national identity.Graham draws on the work of M.M.Bakhtin, the Russian critic. Michael Gardiners comments on Voloshinov are excessively seen by Graham as relevant to this discussion of monologismThe dominant division is motivated to ensure fixity of meaning and arrest the flux of the sign, to that degree as the establishment of a monolithic or official expression facilitates the socio-political unification of society. (Gardiner, 16)So, monologism is synonymous with hegemony - be that sexual, social, imperial or any other ideological assertion of dominance and fixity. Thus, the status of the subaltern - where the subaltern has no voice - leaves them, as Bakhtin says, as, . . . another person who remains wholly and merely an prey of consciousness, and not another consciousness. (qtd.in Gardiner, 26)In Surfacing the subaltern role could be filled by both male and female. The narrating I holds the discourse firmly. She altogether has her inner consciousness exposed and denies others their consciousness. Unlike, say, Toni Morrison in Jazz, where questions of gender and race are dealt with through a narrative consciousness that moves fluidly from one voice to another. As feminist epic, structurally and adjectivally, the foregrounding and dominance of the I forms a moral-ideological hierarchy. Anna walks extinct of the bedroom, dressed in jeans and shirt again. She combs her hair in front of the mirror, lighten up ends, dark roots, humming to herself.