Ghosts of Margaret Atwood and Henry James : an analysis of the relationship between surfacing and "The Jolly Corner"

Abstract

In the writing of several critics and scholars comparisons have been made between Margaret Atwood^s Surfacing and the supernatural tales of Henry James. This present study is based on the special relationship that appears to exist between Surfacing and James’s final ghost story, ’’The Jolly Corner." By comparing the novel and the story and the significance in both of their psychological ghosts, it is quite obvious that they are remarkably similar; therefore, they invite similar critical approaches, In this study the attempt to analyze Surfacing uses as a foundation the psychological interpretation of "The Jolly Corner" by psychologist Saul Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig has identified the ghost in James’s short Story as one representing a portion or fragment of the author’s self whose origin can be traced to James’s decision to emigrate from America, When a similar approach is taken to Atwood’s Surfacing, the conclusion reached is that the ghost in the novel represents a portion of Atwood’s self that began to haunt her after the rejection of her first unpublished novel. Up in the Air So Blue.