Redefining Gender in Margaret Atwood’s Bodily Harm

Abstract

The present research is an inquiry on the female character Rennie's quest for her new genderidentity in patriarchal social structure in Margaret Atwood'sBodily Harm.It focuses on Rennie who is a lifestyle journalist in the course of establishing herself as an independent being. Despite her strength and boldness, the male characters do everything possible to exercise their violence on her. She unconsciously becomes the victim of patriarchy and loses her self-identity. Rennine's involvement with different men and the subsequent betrayal she undergoes give her a lesson that she has been thrown into a nightmare that she had never anticipated. Her efforts not only survive but also comprehend the swirl of events to lead her to the new levels of personal and artistic awareness. She, in the course, gives up her relations with them and emerges a new woman. She regains her lost identity with self-realization.