2024 : 11 : 20
Erfan Rajabi

Erfan Rajabi

Academic rank: Assistant Professor
ORCID:
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 9642
HIndex:
Faculty: Faculty of Language and Literature
Address: Bloc 12, Teachers's residential headquarters, Pasdaran Blv. Sanandaj.
Phone: 1205

Research

Title
Meta-narratives, Discourses and Subject Positioning in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy
Type
Thesis
Keywords
subject positioning, discourse analysis, grand-narrative, Atwood, MaddAddam Trilogy.
Year
2024
Researchers Salam Muhsin Hasan Aldavodi(Student)، Erfan Rajabi(PrimaryAdvisor)، Masoud Dehghan(PrimaryAdvisor)

Abstract

Subject positioning theory is one of the recent contributions in the field of discourse analysis and has been used widely in pedagogy. In this research the theory is applied to Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam to illu-minate how the characters (or subjects) are positioned or, to use an Althusserian term, interpellated. MaddAddam Trilogy offers such deep layers of meaning that enables one to embark on a vast discourse analysis concerning those texts. By utilizing subject po-sitioning theory the possible [meta]discourses (or meta-narratives), that are defining the subjectivity of the novels’ characters, are unveiled. In other words, this research demonstrates how discourses, such as the scientific-technological or consumerist dis-courses, govern and regulate the characters’ subjectivity throughout the novels. Ac-cordingly, the scientific-technological discourse leads to immoral experimentalism, consumerism, and corruption in the novels’ society. Moreover, the commodifying and corrupting discourses are traced in the light of a scientific metanarrative. In another section, the influence and role of religious discourses are scrutinized to explain some of characters’ actions, such as atheism or extremist acts like creating new species. Fi-nally, the discourse of violence and the normalization of violence is explored to elabo-rate on the characters immoral and violent behaviors and actions. This study identifies the positions of the characters through their discursive practices; then, by investigating the very discursive statements the characters use in a specific position, the dominating discourses are uncovered. This thesis provides a genuine method of discourse analysis within the field of literature as well as a totally contributive readings of the novels.