Magical Feminism, Violence and Fairy Tales in Atkinson’s Human Croquet

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to examine how the feminist narrative can be successfully introduced in the magic realism mode to denounce the inequality, oppression and violence exercised against women by patriarchy. Women writers have found in this mode a platform to express their experiences and perspectives, challenging the phallocentric and rationalist hegemony and representing the complexity of the female experience. Then, I will argue how award-winning Kate Atkinson uses magic realism in her novel Human Croquet (1997) from a feminist approach. Far from simply substituting the authority of one dominant discourse for another, Atkinson represents marvelous elements and fairy tales structures to condemn different forms in which women have been abused and forced to endure the consequences of patriarchal dynamics in their own bodies.