Power Dynamics in Margaret Atwood’sBodily Harm
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Central Department of English
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.