Abstract

This study examines Margaret Atwood’s Murder in the Dark through the lens of authorial intrusion as a deliberate form of feminist narrative intervention. Through a close reading informed by postmodern theory and feminist narratology, the study analyzes how Atwood employs three interconnected strategies—metafictional self-referentiality, structural fragmentation, and genre subversion—to challenge the authority of patriarchal storytelling. These techniques destabilize reader expectations, expose the ideological frameworks embedded in conventional narrative forms, and disrupt the hierarchical relationship between author, text, and reader. By transforming readers from passive observers into ethically engaged participants, Atwood reframes storytelling as a site of cultural and gendered critique. The analysis demonstrates that authorial intrusion in Murder in the Dark functions not merely as a metafictional device but as a mode of feminist resistance, revealing literature’s capacity to contest and reconfigure entrenched ideological scripts.

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