Author: Serban, A
Abstract: Women have constantly been perceived as the social "other" and defined against men's Superiority. Margaret Atwood uses food imagery and eating to suggest power relations in a society which seem to obey the laws of the natural world (i.e. "eat or be eaten") rather than the la, vs of humans. Focusing on three of Atwood's novels - The Edible Woman, Cat's Eye, and Lady Oracle - the paper deals with metaphors of cannibalism and the role they play in the female protagonists' reconsideration of their identities. The three novels selected are representative for three kinds of symbolic cannibalism in the sense of amputated or frozen selves. Each of the three protagonists will learn her lesson of assertiveness through (symbolic) trips to the origins, and become stronger women able to control their own lives.
Source: ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND HUMANITY ISSUES IN THE DOWN DANUBIAN REGION: MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES
Publication Year: 2009
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Pages: 347 - 357