The Language of Revolution and the Power of Storytelling in The Pregnant Widow

Abstract

Martin Amis uses the language of revolution to describe the newly altered social circumstances at the height of the sexual revolution in his semi-autobiographical novel The Pregnant Widow. The concept of a ‘language of revolution’ as well as second- and third-wave feminist scholarship is applied to a textual analysis of the novel. Amis’s brand of satire creates a sense of displacement and challenges existing perceptions about gender, culture and sexuality, exposing them as constructed and changeable norms. Moreover, it becomes clear that the author is skeptical about the benefits of the sexual revolution for either gender, and that he views its liberating aspects as unfulfilled, particularly for women. Given that Amis names one of his characters Scheherazade, evoking the legendary heroine of The Arabian Nights, the importance of storytelling in the novel is also examined and found to be a potentially redeeming force.