COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NOVELS BY MARGARET ATWOOD

Abstract

The article underlines that Canadian literature is not well-researched in Ukraine but it is worth of being analyzed as it can boast of many outstanding writers. The oeuvre of one of them, the most famous and prolific Canadian authoress Margaret Atwood, has been chosen as the material for this article. Four novels by Atwood are discussed in terms of common characteristics that are a trademark of the writer and these include Lady Oracle, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Blind Assassin, The Year of the Flood.

It has been underlined that Atwood writes about women and women in her works present a symbol of all changes in the Canadian society. Such typical peculiarities of Atwood’s style are emphasized as the usage of epigraphs, the presence of the method “a story-within-a-story”, female characters quoting someone from their past, the depiction of a woman as a tool for conceiving a baby, absence of understanding and warmness between parents and their daughters, the loss of a beloved person, disgusting descriptions of food, flowers as symbols of hope in the novels. All the theme elements used by the writer are enumerated in the article such as a woman’s loneliness, the attitude to a woman, endless losses, desperation, ecological catastrophes, forever lost opportunities, chasing of the past, self-analysis.

The author of the article attracts a reader’s attention to Atwood’s unique writing style as the authoress uses relevant stylistic devices and deeply psychological plot lines. Moreover the researcher of the work encourages all interested in Canadian literature to analyze Atwood’s oeuvre since one can be the very first one to do it. Margaret Atwood publishes titles quite often and usually they are not popular with Ukrainian audience, so literary researchers are fully capable to eliminate this problem and promote Canadian literature in Ukraine.