As poet, novelist, and critic Margaret Atwood is one of Canada’s most stimulating contemporary writers. In this essay collection the authors examine her “system” or “set of codes” from a variety of critical perspectives which, considered together, demonstrate the overall consistency of Atwood’s work. The introductory and concluding papers by the editors frame the other essays which range from thematic, historical, comparative, and feminist to syntactical studies of Atwood’s text and language.
Anyone interested in Margaret Atwood will want to have this collection. It is serious, well-informed, well-documented, ranging; and it generates critical thought.
Sherrill Grace and Lorraine Weir (editors) are both associate professors in the English department at the University of British Columbia.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Articulating the “Space Between”: Atwood’s Untold Stories and Fresh Beginnings / Sherrill E. Grace
2 From Poetic to Narrative Structures: The Novels of Margaret Atwood / Linda Hutcheon
3 The Pronunciation of Flesh: A Feminist Reading of Atwood’s Poetry / Barbara Blakely
4 Atwood’s Poetic Politics / Eli Mandel
5 Surface Structures: The Syntactic Profile of Surfacing / Robert Cluett
6 Surfacing: Amerindian Themes and Shamanism / Marie-Francoise Guedon
7 The Uses of Ambiguity: Margaret Atwood and Hubert Aquin / Philip Stratford
8 Metamorphosis and Survival: Notes on the Recent Poetry of Margaret Atwood / George Woodcock
9 Atwood in a Landscape / Lorraine Weir
Contributors
Index
