Sleight of Hand: Confession and Deception in Atwood’s The Blind Assassin

Abstract

Iris Chase in The Blind Assassin proposes to write a confessional narrative. The text is a palimpsest of her narrative, the process of her writing and vignettes of narratives told to her by Alex. Atwood cleverly manipulates the body of the text and the multiple strands of stories to capture the complex nature of narratives. This paper attempts to explore the double bind of a confessional text that sets out to reveal secrets while simultaneously attempting to hide guilt. It also explores how the real intent of Chase’s memoir, in spite of claims to the contrary is not to reveal but to conceal and what eventually gets revealed happens in spite of the fictional author, Chase. While it is obvious that Chase is a victim, it is also evident that she is a manipulator as well as perpetrator and Atwood challenges the very notion of victimhood. This paper is an attempt to explore the fissures that Iris tries to gloss over in order to unveil the unacknowledged intentions behind her narrative. Iris hopes to alleviate the guilt she experiences occasioned by her sister’s suicide for which she holds herself responsible by openly acknowledging her part in precipitating it. But the question arises how far is expiation possible through confession and whether Iris’ confession is compromised by the motives that goes beyond her stated objectives.