LitRadar - July 20, 2026 - The Blind Assassin and Memory Studies

                  

In Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin (2000), memory functions as both a fractured lens and a means of survival. Narrated as the memoir of the elderly Iris Chase, the novel reconstructs family history through fragmented recollections shaped by trauma, guilt, and old age. From a memory studies perspective, the novel explores trauma and unreliable narration, showing how painful experiences lead to selective remembering and forgetting, making memory subjective rather than objective. The novel also reflects Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity, as Iris uses writing to reinterpret her past and construct a coherent sense of self. The embedded novel, The Blind Assassin, blurs the boundaries between memory and fiction, revealing hidden truths. Finally, Atwood employs historiographic metafiction by combining personal memories with historical events and documentary fragments. This suggests that both history and memory are constructed narratives shaped by interpretation rather than fixed truths.