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Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86).
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of English Language and Literature
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613222233702400 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Botha, Fourie |
| author_browse | Botha, Fourie |
| author_facet | Botha, Fourie |
| author_sort | Botha, Fourie |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86). |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13932 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:42.829Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of English Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | Department of English Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13932 Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems Botha, Fourie English in Literature and Modernity Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86). This dissertation explores the construction of the subject via a relationship of power in two poem sequences, 'The circle game' and 'Two-headed poems', by Margaret Atwood. I argue that Atwood proposes a subject similar to the kind of subject found in psychoanalysis. Like the psychoanalytic subject, Atwood's subject is formed in relation to its other. This relation is essentially a power relation and can become unbalanced, forcing one of the two parties into a subjugated position. Atwood not only exposes these skewed relations of power, but also explores possible solutions for escaping or reconfiguring these relationships. The first chapter briefly discusses theories of the subject by Freud, Lacan and Kristeva. I use Hegel's dialectic between the 'master' and 'bondsman', and subsequent psychoanalytic and postcolonial applications of it, to examine the construction of the subject in terms of an other in Chapter 2. Postcolonial map theory and Kristeva's ideas on the abject are used to verbalize the divisions, but also the interactions, between the subject and its other as well as possibilities of escape. Chapter 3 demonstrates these power relationships, and their expression in cartographic terms, in 'The circle game'. In Chapter 4, I show how processes analogous to the eruption of poetic language into the symbolic order are described in the poetry. Even though these processes do not provide a clear-cut solution to the position of the subjected, their presence signals the possibility of renegotiating unbalanced relationships of power. 2015-09-15T10:09:51Z 2015-09-15T10:09:51Z 2008 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13932 eng application/pdf Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | English in Literature and Modernity Botha, Fourie Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems |
| title_full | Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems |
| title_fullStr | Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems |
| title_short | Symbolic masters/semiotic slaves : subjectivity and subjection in Atwood, with reference to The circle game and Two-headed poems |
| title_sort | symbolic masters semiotic slaves subjectivity and subjection in atwood with reference to the circle game and two headed poems |
| topic | English in Literature and Modernity |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13932 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bothafourie symbolicmasterssemioticslavessubjectivityandsubjectioninatwoodwithreferencetothecirclegameandtwoheadedpoems |