Annotated Bibliography:
Margaret Atwood’s Style
Anne Trouillet Rogers
Atwood, Margaret. Interview. Meridian Feature.
BBC World Service.
Harriet Gilbert interviews Margaret Atwood on various themes found consistently in the author’s work, including realism, cultural identity, and feminism. Through a series of questions, Atwood reveals certain influences and events that aided in developing her unique style. She recounts the importance of creating the Canadian novel as a means for establishing her country’s significance in the literary world. Throughout the interview, Gilbert coaxes Atwood to categorize her work as either tragedy or comedy; however, the author contends that she “dissolves” these categories in order to write about the varied perspectives on life. By simultaneously discussing drama with humor, Atwood supports the multiple forms her stories adopt because of their realistic quality. She claims that life does not develop in one form—why should her stories? (126)
Atwood, Margaret. Negotiating with the Dead.
[
Margaret Atwood’s new book is an instructional guide to composing personal, yet effective prose. Drawing on her own experiences with writing, Atwood discusses “the eccentricities of taste and judgment” an author must possess in order to create a personal style. She divides her thoughts into six essays, each detailing a common issue writers encounter with their work—public reaction, the book business, the reader, etc. In discussing style, Atwood presents not only her work, but also the work of other authors, such as Dante or Virgil: writers whose styles remain strong influences in Atwood’s own writing. Throughout her book, she argues why we write (emotion, talent) in lieu of how to write, asserting that individual style can overrule strict formality. (120)
Fraser,
Literature. Contributions
in Women’s Studies 116.
[Library Resource at www.questia.com]
Throughout his book, Fraser seeks to acquire a better understanding of female Canadian literature with broad analysis of political and social influences, primarily masculine, that may have hurt our understanding of Canadian history. He argues that there is “a limited understanding of nationalism if Canadian women are ignored”. Each chapter covers a certain theme pertaining to the politics of Canadian writing from a female perspective. One chapter, entitled “The Refuse to Become a Victim”, details this theme in relation to the work of Atwood. She claims her style is a rejection of “the great Canadian victim complex: If you define yourself as innocent then nothing is ever your fault—it is always somebody else doing it to you”. According to Fraser, this is evident in her works through the continual balance between both weakness and strength in her characters. (140)
Goldblatt,
Patricia F. “Reconstructing Margaret Atwood’s Protagonists.” World
Literature
Today: a literary quarterly of the University of Oklahoma 73:2 (1999): 275-82
[Literature Online (LION Complete)]
Examining a multitude of female characters from various novels by Atwood, Patricia Goldblatt analyzes the author’s style for creating the feminine hero—strong, but flawed. She delves into the themes of escape, death, motherly abandonment, and men in order to discuss the complex relationships of Atwood’s characters, regardless if they exist between women or men and women. Goldblatt argues that Atwood’s style is feminist, but not in complete disregard of the masculine. In some instances, she claims that women take on certain male stereotypes—abusive, degrading, manipulative—and are similarly cruel and vicious. Throughout her article, Goldblatt discusses Atwood’s style as a means of distorting particular aspects of feminist tradition, but keeping the idea of female empowerment despite an oppressive environment. (121)
Kuhn, Cynthia Guerrera. “Style and Textile: The Performance of Dress in Margaret Atwood’s
Fiction.”
Cynthia Kuhn’s dissertation proposes a new theory to certain aspects of Atwood’s style: By using certain textiles and styles of dress, the author creates a character’s identity through culture and personality. Although centering on a unique aspect of Atwood’s style, she presents additionally several statements concerning the author’s habitual inclusion of deeper meaning, whether related to characters, setting, or specific vocabulary. Throughout her dissertation, Kuhn discusses the textiles of various books, including The Handmaid’s Tale and Lady Oracle: two novels depicting women who struggle for their identities within societies that instinctively impose strict roles on the feminine. In both stories, clothes are either a hindrance or means for freedom. According to Kuhn, Atwood’s use of textiles is yet another clue into the intricacies of her style. (125)
Nischik, Reingard M, ed. Margaret Atwood: Works and Impact.
2000. [Literature Online (LION Complete)]
Reingard Nischik composes and edits a collection of personal responses to Atwood’s work given by various scholars, writers, students, and even Atwood herself. Each entry discusses certain aspects of the author’s style and how or why it has greatly affected the literature of today. Featuring the writer’s own artwork and photographs, this collection carries an intimate tone that analyzes Atwood on a human level, instead of the celebrity created by the media. It recounts the impact her work has had at an international level while giving tribute to her Canadian heritage. By examining different opinions of Atwood’s “creativity, transmission, reception” in the literary world, Nischik’s book not only seeks to humanize the writer, but also personalize her works, making her style more accessible to the public. (125)
Ridout , Alice. “Temporality and Margaret Atwood.”
Alice Ridout’s article discusses Atwood’s style for “encountering the wilderness and reinventing its relevance to contemporary urban life”. By incorporating certain aspects of nature into civilization, Ridout claims that Atwood shows a complex relationship between the two worlds and their effect on men and women. She examines different issues of survival in Atwood’s characters by analyzing several of the writer’s short stories, including Man From Mars and Uglypuss. In each, Ridout pays attention to Atwood’s narrative style: the constant switch between a character’s past and present perspective on life events. She argues that this type of narration produces multi-layered characters capable of displaying a range of emotions.
Sullivan, Rosemary. The Red
Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out.
1998. [Literature Online (LION Complete)]
Using several themes from the 1940’s film The Red Shoes,
Rosemary Sullivan compares the early life of Atwood to the talented but
complicated life of Victoria, the doomed ballerina. Both women are forced to
adapt to their talents or perish at a young age. Although