Biblical Women in Contemporary Novels in English: From Margaret Atwood to Jenny Diski

How are well-known female characters from the Bible represented in late 20th-century novels? Bertrand shows how biblical women in contemporary literature are given a voice that rests not only on words but also on silences. Exploring the many forms that silence can take, she presents an innovative typology that sheds light on this profoundly meaningful phenomenon.

Ingrid Bertrand, Ph.D. (2011), is an Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature at the Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles and the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). She has published on biblical rewritings and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Her research interests are dystopias and manifestations of silence in novels.