Irony, parody, and power in the reworking of the traditional love lyric in Margaret Atwood’s Power Politics

Abstract

This thesis examines how Margaret Atwood’s Power Politics reworks and challenges the conventions of the traditional love lyric through irony, parody, and representations of gendered power dynamics. The literature review establishes the historical conventions of love lyric traditions and outlines previous critical approaches to Power Politics. The empirical section consists of literary analysis of selected poems, focusing on language, imagery, tone, and structure to demonstrate how Atwood dismantles romantic ideals and exposes intimacy as shaped by conflict, domination, and emotional instability. The analysis concludes that Power Politics remains formally connected to the love lyric tradition while simultaneously subverting its assumptions about love, unity, and emotional fulfilment. Keywords: Margaret Atwood, Power Politics, love lyric, irony, parody, power dynamics