Naracija, tradicija i manipulacija: mit o postanju u trilogiji BesniAdam Margaret Atvud

Abstract

Situated on the brinks of destroyed civilization, Margaret Atwood’s protagonists seem to long for its restoration through the means of the reconstructed biblical myths. Employing parody and grotesque, while at the same time positioning the biblical myth of Creation in the center of the narrative as a metaphor for unity and coherence, MaddAddam trilogy implies its reading within the postmodernist framework. The analysis of the trilogy in reference to the postmodernist incredulity towards the concept of closed knowledge, serves to corroborate the claim that every quest for meaning implied by human as well as posthuman identities, culminates in the inaccessibility of the meaning due to its intricate narrative nature. Myth as grounds for identity formation proves to be illusory, leading to the perpetual postponing of the identity formation. Despite the fact that Atwood’s unfolding of a story within a story implies the attempt to reveal the manipulation and subjectivity beyond the surface of the narrative, it also brings into question the possibility of any critical exposing which does not simultaneously expose itself, given that the story proclaiming the truth is a narrative as well.