Exploring Otherness in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. Ethical and Epistemological Reflections on Historiographic Metafiction

The paper investigates the capacity of historiographic metafiction to deal with the internal contradictions that characterize writing and story-telling, and to transform those very contradictions into analytical tools. An analysis of Margaret Atwood’s novel Alias Grace will cast light on how postmodern texts may address otherness not only as a theme, but also as the starting point for reflecting on the politics of representation. This paper will focus on how the novel works through the interlacing of several Victorian discourses in order to cast a new light on the story of a notorious nineteenth-century murderess. As the latter progressively finds her voice, the novel also challenges contemporary readers’ perception of identity and alterity, as well as their assumptions about Victorian values and sensibility.