Powerpoint Templates Page 1 Margaret Atwood ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’ 1994

Powerpoint TemplatesPage 1

Margaret Atwood‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’

1994

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Author: • Born 1939• Nobel prize winning Canadian author• Poetry internationally acclaimed but best known for her

novels• Feminist campaigner in the 1960s• Writing praised in the1970s by feminists• A feminist supporter but criticises extremism• Not a ‘feminist author’- distances herself from that

ideological position• Worked as English lecturer at University of British

Colombia• Writer-In-Residence at numerous universities in the 70s

and 80s, e.g.• University Of Toronto, Macquarie Univ. and Trinity Univ.



Audience: • Well-educated readers of fiction

• Middle-aged, intellectual, literary women

• Informed about contemporary social movements, specifically the role of feminism in the changing position of women in life and art

• Speech said at different events throughout 1994, e.g. American Bookseller Convention

• Atwood often invited to attend literary festivals to speak about her work as well as the role of literature in society.



Context For Speech: • 1960s: strong feminist push (second wave feminism)

– Focus on fighting the oppression of women in society and the need for equal rights

• 1990s: response to the backlash of second wave feminism

(third wave feminism)

– Reacted to new thoughts about equality, social structure and gender

– Focus on accepting contradictions, as well as embracing diversity and change

• Questions of what feminism meant and the changing roles of men/women

• 1994: Canadian debate about its national identity

– Atwood universal writer

– Faced with globalisation of the world economy and culture



Central Idea/Argument:• The speech focuses on the representation of women in literature over the

ages, in particular the presentation of evil or bad women. – Evident in the title ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’

• For this purpose she harnesses the personal anecdote of her young daughter’s theatrical presentation, the help her illustrate what literature is not– “... Are you going to do anything except have breakfast?’ we said.

‘No’ they said. “Then this isn’t a play,’ we said. ‘Something else has to happen’...

• To rescue the representation of women in literature both from patriarchal stereotypes and from ideological feminist stereotypes– ‘Lets put a women at the centre of something-other-than-

breakfast, and see what happens....’

• Her purpose is not to push for one side of the argument but to critique other agendas and propose certain suggestions as to how the question of wicked women in literature might be framed.



• A large section of the speech deals with the more general question of what fiction aims to do, and how it is created. – The word 'process' is very fashionable. All it really means, as

far as I can tell, is "how do you do it?" You have to understand something about the form before you can do it at all. (Atwood)

• Atwood looks at the general question of fiction, its aims and scope, and at the requirements of various genres of fiction. At this point she moves to considering the women's movement:– … 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, and therefore what you can get away with, in art.

• 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 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.



Values Explored• Literature should reflect the diversity of life

and its moral complexity– Atwood is portraying the notion that literature should

have characters that reflect the variety life offers as that is what makes a story entertaining rather than characters that are two dimensional “Create a flawless character and you create an

insufferable one; which maybe why I am interested in spots” – spots refers to the guilt Lady Macbeth felt after influencing her husband to kill the King



• Women are capable of evil, and this should be recognised– Atwood also emphasises that women too

can possess faults in terms of their moral complexity and should not be stereotyped within literature as being only virtuous “Evil women are necessary in story traditions…

why shouldn’t their many-dimensionality be given literary expression?”



• Evil characters in literature are the most interesting. – They are said to be the ‘lifeblood of literature’, meaning

no evil characters equals no literature– Atwood points out in her speech that literature needs

‘something disruptive to static order’ in order to make the text more interesting, engaging and unique.

– She further emphasizes on this point by using an anecdote, turning out to be her daughter’s tedious play based on an ongoing breakfast. Margaret then goes on to state that in order to be literature, a novel or whatever form of writing must consist of ‘more than breakfast’.

– She also says that ‘the difference between literature and life is something else has to happen.’ Through this anecdote and again her reference to literature having to be ‘more than breakfast’, it is easy to conclude that she means that literature in fact need characters who bring something different and diverse to a novel or piece of writing, such as the spotty-handed villainesses or in basic reference, evil characters.



• 1970s feminism has been good for society– Margaret ‘summarises’ within her speech the benefits

to literature that the feminist movement supplied : • “the expansion of the territory available to writers, both in

character and in language; a sharp eyed examination of the way power works in gender relations, and the exposure of much of this as socially constructed; a vigorous exploration of many hitherto-concealed areas of experience.”

– Atwood also goes on to speak about the new kinds of behaviours that were available to female characters, exclaiming it to be yet another benefit of the Women’s Movement in the 1970s:

• ‘The Women’s Movement has influenced how people read, and therefore what you can get away with, in art’

– She also again summarises the benefits that she thinks that have come to writing from feminism such as expanded subject matter, the critical examination of power relationships and the introduction of the notion of the social construction of gender.



Structure Of Speech• The speech opens with an introduction of the title and sub-title of the

speech and a Margaret’s use of first person opens the speech up to the central idea and purpose; The portrayal of women in literature, in particular evil women

• Atwood then moves the speech forward and introduces a personal anecdote of her daughters play in order to define what literature is not

• Paragraph 11, is where Atwood begins to describe what a novel is, and begins to criticises those who attempt to define what exactly a novel is – “only a very foolish person would attempt to give a definitive

answer....”

She then goes on to further explain what a novel is but stating what a novel is not

• Paragraph 24 introduces the notion of women in literature, and Atwood focuses on female protagonists– “Lets put a women at the centre of something-other-than-

breakfast• Throughout the remainder of the speech Atwood makes reference to other

example of literature to further highlight her intentions and ideas on women in literature and the different roles that they can and have played.– “Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and Bram Stoker’s Dracula

... Both revolve around notions of female sexuality”



Rhetorical Devices and Examples:Quotes Techniques Effect

“Spotty-handed villainesses” – Title

Allusion to Lady MacBeth – she seemed to see spots (symbols of guilt) on her hands after she influenced her husband to murder the king

Witty and lightly toned way of saying “evil women” introducing her argument that the advent of feminism has made a problem of the presentation of evil women in literature

“When my daughter was five…” – story of her daughter putting on a “play” that consisted of the two characters eating breakfast

Personal anecdote The ‘eternal breakfast’ functions throughout her speech as part of her system of reasoning – becomes a motif that serves as a symbol for the static order that she is critiquing (illustrates through the anecdote that in literature, “something has to happen”



Quotes Techniques Effect“flogging a few dead horses… galloping around as vigorously as ever”

Metaphor, imagery The extended metaphor creates an image in the audience’s head of deceased horses galloping indicating that the “dead horses” (settled arguments) are not dead (settled) at all

“Only a very foolish person would attempt to give a definite answer…”

Self deprecating irony She is using humor and wit to lower her status and appeal to ethos She also uses this technique to undermine her own logical arguments and therefore she is able to expand the context of the speech to apply to a long standing issue of the limitations of applying logic alone to understand reality

“What kind of something... How do I know this... first let me go over… What is a novel, anyway?”

Hypophora, metabasis The beginning of three consecutive paragraphs are hypophora and along with the metabasis (“Let me go over…”) guide the listener through the steps of her argument – leading off from the tail end of each previous paragraph to the next rhetorical question



Quotes Techniques Effect“If you want power you have to accept responsibility, and actions produce consequences”

Sententia Conveys broader and more philosophical truisms that go beyond the scope of the critique she is making on the orthodox feminist position (referencing the well known correlation between power and responsibility)

“Closed-off road… “ Metaphor The metaphor of the ‘closed-off road” refers to the lack of evil women in recent fiction literature – keeps with the perspective of Atwood in that she is not suggesting, she is merely curious – just like the ‘closed off road’ that raises curiosity

“Angel/Whore” “Women who wore high heels and makeup were instantly suspect, those in overalls were acceptable”

Juxtaposition/comparison Challenges the stigma attached to women who wear high heels and makeup who are seen as counter feminists, whereas those extreme feminists dress ‘in overalls’ to escape from that



Quotes Techniques Effect“Women too have multi-dimensions, why doesn’t literature portray this?”

Rhetorical questions She is able to criticize the collision between anti feminists and extreme feminists and the way literature portrays these polarized views, it makes the audience ponder on the question and allows her to influence their answers

“We have not enough evil in us”

Quotation from Dame Rebecca West

The quote sums up her views throughout the speech and allows her to directly link with the female audience – leaves the audience with the lasting impression of her speech

“Novels are not…” Repetition Allows her to engage in a process of elimination wherein she describes what novels are not to therefore arrive at a description of what a novel is



Link to other Speeches

• Margaret Atwood’s speech hold strong ideals and values that link to those presented in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Speech– Aung San Suu Kyi expresses her main view of the

empowerment of women in society through the removal of intolerance and prejudice.

– In a similar way Atwood approaches these values, however expresses them through the medium of literature, through which one can gage an understanding of the changing nature of literature and women.



Critical Commentary: • Engaging in discussion of feminist ideas, some

ideas particularly through the use of literary allusions– Necessity of evil (and often interesting) characters in

literature– Some of them will be women

• Topics discussed as once being non-literary or sub-literary have become even more prominent over past 17 years

• Still relevant as women are still portrayed in a variety of (sometimes conflicting) ways


Documents

Powerpoint Templates Page 1 Margaret Atwood ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’ 1994