Survival

About this book

"'Survival' is the most startling book ever written about Canadian literature. It is ... a book of criticism, a manifesto, and a collection of personal and subversive remarks. Margaret Atwood begins by asking: 'what have been the central preoccupations of our poetry and fiction?' Her answer is twofold: 'survival and victims.' Atwood applies this thesis in twelve brilliant, witty and impassioned chapters. From Moodie to MacLennan to Blais, from Pratt to Purdy to Newlove, from Godfrey to Gibson, she lights up familiar books in wholly new perspectives." The themes are: survival; nature the monster; animal victims; early people (indians and eskimos); ancestral totems (explorers and settlers); family portrait: masks of the bear; failed sacrifices (the reluctant immigrant); the casual incident of death; the paralyzed artist; ice women vs. earth mothers; Quebec: burning mansions; and, jail-breaks and recreations.

Themes & subjects

About the author

Margaret Atwood

18 November 1939

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published more than 50 books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays, including 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her work has been published in over 40 countries, and a number of her works have been adapted for film and television. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel *The Handmaid's Tale,* and her novels also include *Cat's Eye,* shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won…