'Good Bones' and 'Murder in the Dark' - Margaret Atwood's inverse poetics of intertextual smallness

The dichotomy between large and small is a recurring motif in the works of Margaret Atwood. This article examines its workings, first of all in a number of cartoons by the author in which ,for example, the tiny Canadian Survivalwoman is pitted against the massive American Superharm. The dichotomy is also present in Atwood's literary works, such as The Robber Bride, Wilderness Tips, and Cat's Eye, and is an essential element in her short prose works Murder in the Dark and Good Bones. Linked to this is Atwood's inverse poetics, which involved the reversal of conventional norms. The article shows such inverse portrayals at work in Good Bones, where Atwood intertextually rewrites, among other things, poems by Charles Baudelaire, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and how-to articles in popular womens journals. Here, Atwood inverts traditional gender stereotypes to satirical effect. The essay closes with a look at the poem Woman Skating, in which Atwood's large-small dichotomy and her inverse poetics help create a moment of epiphanic stillness.