Vol. II. Issue. III September 2011 - The Criterion: An International ...

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165
Alias Grace is an amalgamation of scientific, social and psychological issues of the
nineteenth century. Further the novel relates to several critical subjects such as slavery,
bondage, abortion, the illegitimate relationship between the maid and the master and the like.
Alice Grace illustrates strong intertextual relationship where the novel primarily holds
reference to two other texts which depicts a different version of Grace Mark’s life story –
Susanna Moodie’s Life in the Clearings (1853) and Atwood’s The Servant Girl (1974), a
television drama written primarily based on Moodie’s version. This fiction is a reconstruction
of the past. Atwood herself in her ‘Author’s Afterword,’ gives an account of all those texts
used by her to construct Alias Grace. All these materials firmly support her to establish a
dialogue between the past and the present. In fact the historical event has been interpreted in
various forms for more than a century and the above two texts along with Atwood’s Alias
Grace provides an excellent road map for an intertextual analysis. Alias Grace opens in 1851
and ends in 1872.
The story of Mark Grace is narrated by Atwood at several levels. Grace herself
ponders over her past and the recollections are narrated in the chronological order. Dr. Simon
Jordan retrospectively presents the story through his thoughts and action. Further his letters
and the reports of Grace develop the plot medically. The quilt-patches, blood and flowers are
important metaphors which communicate a deep sense of meaning to the text. Apart from the
perceptible narration of events, the plot is also built up on memory and dreams which relates
to pre-Freudian psychoanalytical concepts.
The narrative technique employed by Atwood successfully holds a connection
between the past and present intact which mirrors a well-known fact that past still lingers in
the present and the present is interwoven with the past. Further the fiction is moved to a state
of spectral novel by utilizing the literary texts as the voice of spirits and ghosts and thereby
maintaining the continuity of the past and the present. Atwood within her own feminist
perspective has tried to bring the story of Grace to spotlight with the help of history, science
and historiography. Further Shiller states that the neo-Victorian novels are laying more
emphasis reconstructing the past and on the events and people left out by history and hence
“manage[s] to preserve and celebrate the Victorian past.” (541) The presence of intratextual
references in the presentation of Grace’s story in terms of ballads, letters, newspaper cuttings
and other historical documents reflect the myths and fantasies associated with contemporary
definitions of Victorian Women. Hantiu rightly points out that “Grace’s story is just one of
the many telling about the destiny of an Irish immigrant to Canada, a story constructed out of
many pieces of evidence but still uncertain. But doesn’t history itself mean effacement and
mingling of records, isn’t clearly marked down as a semiotic of uncertainity?” (8)
I think of all the things that have been written about me – that I am an
inhuman female demon, that I am an innocent victim of a blackguard forced
against my will … And I wonder, how can I be all of these different things at
once? (Atwood, Alias Grace, 23)
Intertextuality is a common element found in most Canadian women writers
belonging to different periods and Atwood is no exception. Faye Hamill demonstrates the
“interdependent and mutually nourishing” (140) intertextual relationships by drawing various
illustrations from novels, letters, magazines, diaries and speeches. Margaret Atwood’s
reading of Susanna Moodie’s Life in the Clearings (1853) has brought in a rewarding
experience of the writer. It initially inspired Atwood to attempt The Journals of Susanna
Moodie (1970) by making use of actual excerpts to turn Moodie’s experience into a hypnotic
mind and sense disorientation trip. On the contrary, it was Moodie’s diary which gave the
impetus and input to write the much celebrated Alias Grace. According to Hantiu,
“What Atwood insists on in her novel is a kind of postmodern loss of
identity… In order to replace what she had lost, to reduce the dissonance, she
surrenders to the culture of the moment – This is why she assumes either Mary
Whitney’s or Nancy Montgomery’s identity to such an extent that for long
periods of time Grace is but an “alias”. (4)
The concept of intertextuality is meant to designate a kind of language which,
because of its embodiment of otherness, is against, beyond and resistant to
mono(logic). Vol. II. Issue. III Earlier Atwood had complete 15 trust and faith over a monologic September 2011
interpretation of truth and knowledge. She assumed that a non-fiction narrates only