The Spatial Representation and the Irish Immigrants' Ethical Choice in Alias Grace

Abstract

Abstract: The novel, Alias Grace, by the Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood, fictionalizes the experience of a historical figure and an Irish immigrant, Grace Marx, who emigrated to North America. In this novel, space not only represents various social relations, but also facilitates certain corresponding ethical norms. Grace was caught in the ethical conflict aboard the immigrant ship, restricted by ethical taboos in the space of colonial employment, and stared at by others in a panopticon prison. She made the corresponding ethical choice to resolve various conflicts. The novel re-presemts the spatial violence against the low-level immigrants as well as the vulnerable and marginalized groups in the former colonies of Canada. Also, it criticizes the phenomenon of inequality due to ethnicity, class, and gender. Atwood reflects on the relationship between Canada and its former suzerain, UK, by analyzing Grace's ethical choice and turns her arduous experience into a metaphor of the damage that Canada had suffered under the British colonial rule.

Key words: Atwood, Alias Grace, spatial representation, ethical choice

Wang Qinglu. The Spatial Representation and the Irish Immigrants' Ethical Choice in Alias Grace[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2021, 43(4): 144-153.

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