The Postcolonial Uncanny: The Unrepresentability of Subject Formation in Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Ershad-Damavand University, Tehran, Iran

10.22080/jlab.2026.30904.1004

Abstract

This article explores Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood through the theoretical framework of the uncanny in order to interrogate the unrepresentability of subject formation. Drawing on Sigmund Freud’s formulation of the uncanny and its postcolonial reconfiguration by Homi K. Bhabha, the article argues that the novel resists coherent representations of selfhood grounded in stable notions of home, nation, and identity. Although Elaine Risley remains geographically fixed within her native country, she inhabits a persistent condition of unhomeliness, experiencing estrangement within spaces conventionally associated with familiarity and belonging. The uncanny operates as a disruptive and destabilizing force that renders the familiar unfamiliar, thereby exposing identity as contingent, fractured, and constructed rather than unified or secure. Through an analysis of mimicry and camouflage as strategies of accommodation and survival, alongside the recurring figure of the double or doppelgänger, the article demonstrates how subjectivity emerges as divided, repetitive, and marked by internal displacement. These uncanny mechanisms foreground the limits of representation by revealing subject formation as a process shaped by dislocation, doubling, and deferred coherence. Ultimately, Cat’s Eye articulates subjectivity not as a stable or recoverable essence, but as an ongoing, incomplete process that remains fundamentally resistant to full conceptual or narrative representation.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Literature Across Borders
Volume 1, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
Summer/Fall
September 2026
Pages 29-44

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