Critique of Cosmopolitan Modernity in Atwood’s The Robber Bride
Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of English
Abstract
Utilizing the concept of modernity and gender as conceptualized by Janet
Wolff, Rita Felskiand Bonnie Kim Scott, thisresearch project concentrates on the
difficulties and crises upon female characters in Atwood’s novelThe Robber Bride.
Most of the female characters in The Robber Brideare deviated from their cultural
root and individual identity.They feel that the temptation to follow theWesternized
thought has distorted the taste and attitude of the young generation. The main
character of this novel Roz belongs to the class of handmaid’s fertile women who is
forced to bear children for elite, barren couples and rich people. Roz forgets her real
name, cultural identity and her own background being lost in the midst ofWestern
technocratic world. She comes in metropolitan American city to searchforher better
life, but she becomesa puppet in thehands of different males in the city simply
because she is a woman.Though modernity promises about education, development,
and betterment of humanity, it deteriorates Rozin the level of apuppetrather than
enlightening her.
Keywords: Modernity and the City, Cosmopolitan Modernity, Multiple Modernities,
Public Sphere, Private Sphere,Flanuer, Flaneuse, Dystopia
Description
Keywords
Cosmopolitan modernity, Multiple modernities, Public sphere, Private sphere, Flanuer, Flaneuse, Dystopia, Modernity and the City