American International Journal of Social Science

The Study of Madness in Surfacing: Psychological trauma, Alienation and Schizophrenia
Esma Biroğlu

Abstract
This study critically examines the depiction of madness in surfacing which is written in 1972 by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The first part of the study traces what madness is, the history of madness and why it emerges in life. The second part offers a representation of madness of the unnamed narrator-protagonist in relation to her abortion and her realization of her own complicity in the patriarchal oppression of the women and nature. A light is also shed on the other causes that lie behind the narrator’s mental disorder, like betrayal of her former boy friend, oppression of the society and alienation. The last part of this study examines the narrator’s self-discovery journey which is full of risks after secluding herself on her native village in Quebec where she spent her childhood with her family.

Full Text: PDF