The Edible Woman | Historical Context

The Edible Woman Historical Context

Historical and Cultural Context

Patricia Goldblatt in "Reconstructing Margaret Atwood's Protagonists" begins her essay by describing the historical and cultural context within which Margaret Atwood lives and works:

Margaret Atwood weaves stories from her own life
in the bush and cities of Canada. Intensely conscious
of her political and social context, Atwood dispels
the notion that caribou-clad Canadians remain perpetually
locked in blizzards while simultaneously
seeming to be a polite mass of gray faces, often indistinguishable
from their American neighbors. Atwood
has continually pondered the lack of an identifiable
Canadian culture. . . . In an attempt to focus
on Canadian experiences, Atwood has populated her
stories with Canadian cities, conflicts, and contemporary
people.

Atwood and a handful of other women writers in Canada are considered to have marked a turning point in Canadian literature. Her first novel, The Edible Woman, was written before the resurgence of the women's movement, but the ideas...
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