Seeing in the Dark: Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye

Shannon Hengen is an associate professor of English at Laurentian
University and the author of Margaret Atwood’s Power: Mirrors,
Reflections and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry.

This reading of Atwood’s novel appears in the ECW Press series
Canadian Fiction Studies. Accessible and jargon-free, the short book
includes a chronology of Atwood’s life and work, an assessment of the
importance of this work of fiction, an analysis of its critical
reception, and—primarily—a sustained close reading.

The author notes in his opening paragraphs Atwood’s success with both
academic and popular audiences. His own skilful and intricate
interpretation seems aimed only at the academic audience, at those at
least minimally trained in the study of narrative design. His method is
to show not why the book is popular, but how it is crafted. The
subdivisions in the section devoted to reading the text come from the
title, Seeing in the Dark. The novel’s central character, Elaine, must
learn to see in the dark in order to penetrate what she has forgotten or
repressed, what has kept her from understanding and coping with pain.
The darkness itself seems to recede by novel’s end, enabling Elaine if
not to articulate her sense of self and life, then at least to begin to
see it.

Davidson grounds his analysis in his belief that Atwood’s novel is a
kind of “‘daughterly’ rewriting of Proust, Shakespeare, and
Dante.” His methodology—that of pointing out Atwood’s
“intertextual” references, her consummate skill at “revisioning”
the precursors—remains rooted in academic discourse. Would that he had
applied his exceptional talents to addressing the popular audience for
Atwood’s writing as well. What might Atwood’s nonacademic readers
value in such a reader’s guide as this?