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Abstract

This dissertation analyses the portrayal of pregnancy within three texts: Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin; Surfacing by Margaret Atwood; and Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica. The first chapter will highlight Levin’s attempts to challenge the restricted embodiments of pregnancy through ideas of abortion, as well as through his construction of a demonic fetus. I will build upon the work of Karyn Valerius (2005) and Lucy Fischer (1992) to support this argument. This chapter will also discuss the interchangeability of the mother figure within Bazterrica’s dystopian text. The second chapter maintains that the female protagonists of each text lose autonomy through the invasion of the self by the other. Through the act of rape, as well as through the extreme regulation of the menstrual cycle, the female figures of these texts are disempowered through the brutal violation of their respective bodies. However, I will go on to suggest that, within Atwood’s Surfacing, the female narrator is able to reappropriate autonomy by assuming a form of pregnancy that is reminiscent of Bakhtin’s (1984) grotesque body. The third chapter will initially explore Levin’s inversion of Julia Kristeva’s (1982) abject notions surrounding the mother figure, whilst also questioning the stability of Rosemary’s power at the conclusion of his text. Finally, I will extend the ideas of the grotesque body within Surfacing. I will argue that Atwood rejects the abject notions surrounding the pregnant female as she allows her narrator to embody an empowered archaic form. After considering these ideas, this dissertation will argue that these texts highlight the importance of challenging society’s views of the pregnant female, rather than merely accepting the abject connotations surrounding the maternal figure.

Course: English Literature - BA (Hons) - C0995

Date Deposited: 2022-02-17

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13802.html