Nomenclatural mutations : forms of address in Margaret Atwood's novels

Abstract

The article analyses the forms of address used in Margaret Atwood's first novel (written before the women's movement in the USA and Canada had got under way), in her second novel (by which time the women's movement and corresponding theoretical approaches had appeared), and in Atwood's latest novels (written at a time when some people had begun talking of a so-called ‘postfeminist era’). The analysis demonstrates Atwood's keen and observant sensibility regarding the communicative problems and literary opportunities involved in forms of address. Specific options are systematically chosen in the characters’communication with the other sex in The Edible Woman and Surfacing, and these options, as well as the comments given by Elaine Risley in Cat's Eye and by the female protagonists in The Robber Bride, show the general importance of these forms of communication when judging the characters’stances towards one another. The chosen forms of address suggest the attitude the speakers have towards their interlocutors, and show the relevance of the systematic use of sexist forms of address for the creation and/or perpetuation of prejudice and stereotyping in connection with women.