Margaret Atwood Summary

One of Canada's most distinguished literary figures, Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born 1939) is an internationally famous novelist, poet, critic, and politically committed cultural activist.Margaret Elean... Read more

One of Canada's most public literary personalities, Margaret Atwood has made her reputation as much as by being versatile as by being controversial. As a poet she has to date produced ten volumes of v... Read more

Critical Essay by Patricia Morley You could call it an adventure thriller set in the wilds of northern Quebec. You could call it a detective story centering on the search for the main character'... Read more

Critical Essay by Marshall Matson [The poems collected in Two-Headed Poems are] of disappointment, political and personal. The "two-headed poems" are specifically the political ones in t... Read more

Wilcox is an American-born short story writer and novelist whose works include Modern Baptists (1983), North Gladiola (1985), and Miss Undine's Living Room (1987). In the following review, Wilc... Read more

In the following review, Kemp praises Good Bones as a "sample-case of Atwood's sensuous and sardonic talents." Pocket-sized and with sturdy covers, Good Bones looks a bit like a s... Read more

In the following essay, Lauter examines Atwood's revision of the myth of Odysseus and Circe in her "Circe/Mud Poems." In her sequence of poems entitled "Circe/Mud Poems,&#x... Read more

In the excerpt below, Smith offers a mixed review of Atwood's Selected Poems II. Among American readers Margaret Atwood is Canadian literature. She has published a book annually for more than t... Read more

In the following essay, Lucking discusses the motifs of depth and surface in relation to Atwood's "thematic concern with the quest for authentic selfhood" in Bodily Harm. Margaret... Read more

Critical Essay by Frank Davey [In] Margaret Atwood's new novel, Bodily Harm,… readers of her previous comic novels will find much that is familiar. Here again is the opposition between a... Read more

Critical Essay by Dana Gioia Margaret Atwood's Two-Headed Poems are full of interesting ideas, memorable images, and intelligent observations. She has a deep understanding of human motivation, ... Read more

Critical Essay by Linda Rolens "In a way I admire her, she gets through the days." That is what Margaret Atwood's characters do—get through the days. In other stories by ot... Read more

Critical Essay by Tom Marshall Atwood is a swimmer. The familiar Canadian "underwater" motif, the notion of the self and Canada itself trapped underwater like Atlantis, occurs in the fir... Read more

Critical Essay by David Macfarlane The most obvious and compelling strength of True Stories is that, like much of Atwood's verse, it seems to grow naturally and with ease from a personal vision... Read more

Critical Essay by George Woodcock [Much] of True Stories consists of a kind of poetic actuality, a continuing oblique comment on the world that is our here and now. It is perhaps the best verse Atwood... Read more

Critical Essay by Linda W. Wagner For Margaret Atwood, life is quest, and her writing—particularly her poetry—is the charting of that journey. Atwood's journey is seldom geographi... Read more

In the following essay, Carrington finds parallels between Alice Munro's “Walking on Water” and Margaret Atwood's “The Whirlpool Rapids” and “Walking o... Read more

In the following review, Kemp praises Good Bones as a “sample-case of Atwood's sensuous and sardonic talents.” Pocket-sized and with sturdy covers, Good Bones looks a bit like a s... Read more

In the following essay, Suarez traces the development of Atwood's narrative technique as evinced in her short fiction. Margaret Atwood's creative world, as has repeatedly been noted, pos... Read more

In the following essay, Wall examines the portrayal of women as well as the narrative structures in Alice Munro's “Meneseteung” and Margaret Atwood's “Giving Birth.&... Read more

In the following essay, Houghton analyzes Atwood's attempt to construct meaning by drawing attention to and highlighting the “process of exclusion in everyday experience, by focusing upo... Read more

In the following essay, Davey discusses recurring themes in Atwood's short fiction. 1. Iconic Prose Atwood's short fiction contains some of her most successful prose outside Life Before ... Read more

In the following positive review of Bluebeard's Egg, Lyons asserts that the “stories have many virtues and sources of interest, including the revelations about Atwood's biography,... Read more

In the following essay, Peterson evaluates the influence of legends and fairy tales on Atwood's short fiction. In a 1977 interview, Margaret Atwood speculated that her childhood reading led to ... Read more

One of Canada's foremost contemporary writers, Margaret Atwood is an internationally renowned poet, literary critic, novelist, humanitarian and political activist. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1939, ... Read more

Sarah Schaefer Literature First paper June 30, 2006 Rape Fantasies Sadly rape is an all too common accurance, which has been going on forever. Since it does happen a lot, there are a lot of pe... Read more