A Deviant Device: Diary Dissembling in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace

Abstract

Implicating epistolary strategies for misconception and doubt is taken further by Margaret Atwood, whose 'fictional excursion' into the 'real Canadian past' exposes contradictions in the story of an infamous nineteenth-century murderess.3 Neo-Victorian fiction perpetuates the Victorian sensation novel's parasitical relationship with crime reporting by re-employing and imagining documents that litigate with history. Identified as one of a number of 'typical neo-Victorian narratives based on true crime',4 Alias Grace (1996) is a pastiche of Grace Marks's story which demonstrates that 'the past is made of paper', but the historical record is confusing and contradictory.5 The novel pieces epistolary-style narratives into a patterned patchwork of voices that jostle discordantly side by side in search of narrative authority. This includes a secret diary-style voice that fosters ideas of deception and ambiguity to deny resolution for enduring questions of guilt or innocence, thereby illustrating that 'a murderess is not an everyday thing'.6 Atwood claims that Grace's story 'is a real study in how the perception of reality is shaped'; voice and the diverse roles of writer and critic are therefore key preoccupations for Atwood as she debates processes that effectively effaced Grace's legibility.7 This chapter will consider whether a deviant diary style permits Grace Marks to become primarily an alias for Margaret Atwood to deliver her authorial polemic.KeywordsPsychic DistanceFictional WorldConscious RecollectionDiary FormAutobiographical AccountThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.