Women Unwriting Patriarchy: Abortion, Memory, and Female Identity in Two Canadian Novels- Margaret Atwood's Surfacing (1972) and Marian Engel’s Sarah Bastard's Notebook (1974)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v6i2.269Keywords:
Surfacing, Sarah Bastard’s Notebook, Canadian Literature, Abortion, Memory, PatriarchyAbstract
In Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Marian Engel's Sarah Bastard's Notebook, the protagonists' journeys become conduits for exploring the intersections of female identity, embodied trauma, and memory. The patriarchal expectations and traditional roles of women are subverted as these narratives sketch modern women navigating the quiet shifts of a changing Canada set against the backdrop of the 1970s, where abortion was still a taboo and largely inaccessible, hinting at deeper shifts in societal norms. Through abortion’s unspoken memory, both novels expose the subliminal spaces where women’s bodies become sites of power, silence, and resilience. This analysis explores how Atwood and Engel map the evolution of female selfhood beyond marriage, tradition, and societal taboo into uncharted territories of desire and autonomy. By centering women’s inner lives, these novels underscore the power of storytelling in reshaping cultural conversations around identity and choice. The article reviews how Atwood and Engel critique the erasure of women's narratives, positioning embodied experience as a site of resistance against patriarchal structures.
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