Power Dynamics in Margaret Atwood’sBodily Harm

Abstract

Margaret Atwood'sBodily Harmbrings into light the dramatization of various discursive practices that mould the subjectivity of the protagonist Rennie. The novel scrutinizes the position of Rennie, a life style journalist and how she reacts to the situation. She gets ensnared in the complex web of power relations that reflect the functioning of divergent forces. Though she attempts to escape and resist, she is thrown into a nightmarish world in the Caribbeanisland of St. Antoine being imprisoned in a Subalternnean cell with Lora. She is victimized due to the dominant discourses like patriarchy, life style journalism and third world politics. At the end of the novel, she changes her outlook to life and hence survives but she remains an individual who is still a part of the network of different discursive practices.