Ambiguities of Counter-Hegemonic Monologism in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing :: Essays Papers

Ambiguities of Counter-Hegemonic Monologism in Marg art Atwoods SurfacingIn his ledger Ideologies of Epic, Colin graham flour looks at the recognisable tendency of Victorian epic numbers to establish or attempt to establish a monologic converse in relation to the concept of nation, national literature and empire. Epic as musical genre and the concept of nation, . . . desiring to be centripetal, turning in upon themselves, denying the existence of the different (Graham,1), is a phenomenon relevant to monologic discourse as it may be perceived not only in national epic but too in the novel and its concomitant ideologies.Graham points to the evolution in literary history, the move towards the adjectival use of the word epic, especially with regard to the work of Wordsworth and George Eliot. He notes, . . . the feminising and privatising of the once-public, turning narratives of action into narratives of the drama of selfhood. (Graham,4)In a post-colonial context and in the geo graphical context of Canada one thunder mug see in Surfacing how Atwood asserts a feminist counter hegemonic discourse with and within a discursive framing of Canadian national identity.Graham draws on the work of M.M.Bakhtin, the Russian critic. Michael Gardiners comments on Voloshinov are similarly seen by Graham as relevant to this discussion of monologismThe dominant syllabus is motivated to ensure fixity of meaning and arrest the flux of the sign, in so far as the establishment of a monolithic or official nomenclature facilitates the socio-political unification of society. (Gardiner, 16)So, monologism is synonymous with hegemony - be that sexual, social, imperial or any otherwise ideological assertion of dominance and fixity. Thus, the status of the subaltern - where the subaltern has no voice - leaves them, as Bakhtin says, as, . . . another person who remains wholly and merely an intention of consciousness, and not another consciousness. (qtd.in Gardiner, 26)In Surfac ing the subaltern role could be filled by both male and female. The narrating I holds the discourse firmly. She whole has her inner consciousness exposed and denies others their consciousness. Unlike, say, Toni Morrison in Jazz, where questions of gender and race are dealt with through a narrative consciousness that moves fluidly from one voice to another. As feminist epic, structurally and adjectivally, the foregrounding and dominance of the I forms a moral-ideological hierarchy. Anna walks push through of the bedroom, dressed in jeans and shirt again. She combs her hair in front of the mirror, flicker ends, dark roots, humming to herself.