Margaret Atwood Notes PDF

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Margaret Atwood - Spotty Handed Villainesses Inequality : In contrast to Keating’s political speech that addressed a very specific concern of one country’s history, Atwood speaks to a broader, more elite audience, where the academic and intellectual qualifications of her listeners probably exceeded those of the average Australian to whom Keating was speaking. This distinction is clearly evident from the recurring literary and historical allusions, wordplay, extended metaphors and anecdotes and analogies that would be meaningful only to the well-read and the well-educated. Whereas Keating’s colloquialisms and repetitive rhetoric was perfectly attuned to those whom he wished to convince of his argument, so too is Atwood’s erudite language and tone for the ladies of the many venues she visited to give this address on representations of women in literature and film. Recognised as a feminist who has been both praised and vilified for her stance on particular issues regarding women and politics, Atwood delivered this speech during the ongoing clash between the feminist and counter feminist movement and this also informed the ideas she put forward, questioning the ways in which feminist readings may shape texts and whether or not this is a valid way of representing women. The speech scrutinises the role of women and the over arching factor of inequity, through the portrayal of female characters in literature and the changes that have developed over time. Atwood recognises the Angel/Whore dichotomy, and establishes that women have a specific facade that should be complied with within literature as seen through the allusion to fairy tales; “Fairy Tales had a bad reputation amongst feminists .. because they’d been cleaned up”. This metaphor insinuates that fairy tales had been composed to only represent one side of women that should be abided by. She also advocates within her speech that women should be free to decide whether they want to be seen as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Consequently, this reinforces and supports the portrayal of both evil and good women in literature as seen through; “we have not enough evil in us”. This essentially commends the varied roles that females are able to explore within society and fiction, and implies that flawed characters are crucial within literature in order to establish a convincing and riveting story, and also alluding to the title of the speech; “create a flawless character and you create an insufferable one; which may be why I'm interested in spots”. This metaphor ultimately advocates that women should be free to choose whether they want to be seen as an ‘angel’ or ‘whore’, and insinuates that the overarching concept of equality should be prominent within gender settings. Atwood alludes to Lady Macbeth, that killed King Duncan, to demonstrate the idea that women can be bad too. The use of rhetorical questions such as “women have multi-dimensions, why doesn't literature portray this?” enables the audience to contemplate the question, and also enables the orator to influence their answers throughout her speech. The textual integrity and structure of the speech provides it with credibility and enables the audience to understand and appreciate the advocation for equality within gender, and the representations of women in literature. Atwood aims to exemplify that women are much like men, and they can have both good and bad characteristics and should not be represented as having only on or the other. This is revealed through the literary allusion to Shakespeare’s Iago and Imogen, demanding engagement with the audience by implying that men are much more influential and renown; “the proof of it is that you're more likely to know which play Iago is in”. She also implies that being ‘good’ is not always ideal, therefore demonstrating that both genders share similar characteristics in reality whereas the representations in texts tend to emphasise the inequality, as evident through the use of anaphora, as Atwood repeats “novels are not… novels are not” to emphasise that literature is complex and may not always regularise the gap between male and female. The confronting ideas being presented within Atwood’s speech ultimately demand engagement with the immediate and later audience as it enabled for them to explore the issues of feminism and inequality through the analysis of fictional female characters in literature. This also reveals that her speech is still widely referred to today due to the enduring values that are being demonstrated such as gender issues, ultimately promoting change and shift in attitudes, and propagating particular ideas and values....