Spotty Handed Villainesses
Margaret Atwood: 'Spotty-Handed Villainesses' (1994)* Studied at the University of Toronto, then took her masters degree at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts, in 1962 * Canada's most eminent novelist and poet, and also writes short stories, critical studies, screenplays, radio scripts and books for children, her works having been translated into over 30 languages. * A full-time writer since 1972, first teaching English, then holding a variety of academic posts and writer residencies. * President of the Writers Union of Canada from 1981-1982 * President of PEN, Canada from 1984-1986* She is perhaps best known for her novels, in which she creates strong, often enigmatic, women characters and excels in telling open-ended stories, while dissecting contemporary urban life and sexual politics.* She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.* Been presented with the Order of Ontario, the Norwegian Order of Literary Merit, and has been awarded sixteen honorary degrees. 'Spotty-Handed Villainesses' has the sub-title 'Problems of Female Bad Behaviour in the Creation of Literature'.
"But female bad characters can also act as keys to doors we need to open, and as mirrors in which we can see more than just a pretty face. Atwood discusses the effect of the Feminist movement on literature. She raises the issues of feminism not being especially beneficial to women by restricting their choices, as well as pointing out the benefits of it also. Could evil women be depicted at all? "Or was a mere mention of such things tantamount to aiding and abetting the enemy, namely the male power-structure?"* She negates this viewpoint with an overview of wicked women as shown in the world's literature: the murderers, the seducers, the espionage agents, the cheats, the bad mothers and stepmothers. She says that they represent a bigger picture; they represent the true soul of the women's movement; their rights, their beliefs and their attitudes. * The speech assumes, too, that her audiences are informed about contemporary movements in society, particularly the feminist view of the position of women in life and in art. She states "the novel has its roots in the mud, and part of the mud is history; and part of the history we've had recently is the history of the women's movement, and the women's movement has influenced how people read. She acknowledges an influence of the movement being the changed attitudes to female behaviour. "* The next section of the talk describes in some detail the changes in the portrayal of women brought about by the influence of feminist thought. She concludes by claiming that as wicked women exist in real life, so they have a place in literature; and that the many-dimensionality of women needs to be given literary expression. Women in LiteratureMargaret Atwood explores the role of women in literature frequently in her speech. She questions the differences in having a female as the central protagonist, rather than a male. this colloquial talk are well-educated readers of fiction who will respond to the many literary allusions Atwood, for many years a university lecturer, uses to illustrate her thesis.
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