Perry 1
Isaac Perry
Mrs. Vallier
ENG 4U
Monday, Sept 27/’10
Survey of Margaret Atwood and Secondary Sources
1) The author of Oryx and Crake is Margaret Atwood.
2) I became interested in the author after reading what her book was about. For someone to come up with a concept such as this and to be able to successfully explore the mindset of a character in such a setting takes a unique type of person. Different perspectives are something that interests me so this seemed like a perfect read.
3) Born in Ottawa on November 18th, 1939, where she lived for eleven years, Margaret became interested in writing at a young age. Starting to write at age six, she continued the practice to the point of committing herself to becoming a writer at age sixteen. She went on to study at Victoria College, the University of Toronto, Radcliffe College, and Harvard. Her most well known work is 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which is winner of the Governor General’s Award and one of many of her novels that have a “satirical commentary on society, oftentimes in the guise of speculative fiction” (about.com). In addition to her novels and short stories, Atwood is also known for her poetry.
4) Genres; Children, Fiction, Literary criticism, Non-fiction, Poetry, Radio drama, Screenplay, Short stories
Bibliography
Double Persephone, 1961
The Circle Game, 1964
Kaleidoscopes Baroque: A Poem, 1965
Talismans for Children, 1965
Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein, 1966
The Animals in That Country, 1968
The Edible Woman, 1969
Blewointmentpress Occupation Issew, 1970
Lobsticks: Poems, 1970
Procedures for Underground, 1970
Power Politics, 1971
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, 1972
Surfacing, 1973
You Are Happy, 1974
Selected Poems 1965-1975, 1976
Days of the Rebels: 1815-1840, 1977
Lady Oracle, 1977
Marsh Hawk, 1977
The Canadian Imagination: Dimensions of a Literary Culture, 1977
Two-Headed Poems, 1978
Up in the Tree, 1978
Anna's Pet, 1980
Life Before Man, 1980
Notes Towards a Poem That Can Never Be Written, 1981
Bodily Harm, 1982
Dancing Girls and Other Stories, 1982
Encounters with the Element Man, 1982
Second Words: Selected Critical Prose, 1982
True Stories, 1982
Murder in the Dark, 1983
Snake Poems, 1983
The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English, 1983
Unearthing Suite, 1983
The Handmaid's Tale, 1986
The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English, 1986
Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories, 1987
Hurricane Hazel and Other Stories, 1987
Second Words, 1987
The Canlit Foodbook: From Pen to Palate - A Collection of Tasty Literary Fare, 1987
Interlunar, 1988
Cat's Eye, 1989
The Best American Short Stories, 1989: Selected from U. S. and Canadian Magazines, 1989
Barbed Lyres: Canadian Venomous Verse, 1990
For the Birds, 1990
Selected Poems: 1966-1984, 1990
Poems 1965-1975, 1991
Wilderness Tips, 1991
Good Bones, 1992
Poems 1976-1986, 1992
The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: Volume One, The Early Years, 1993
The Robber Bride, 1993
Beyond the Map: Poems by Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, et al, 1994
The Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen: Volume Two, The Later Years, 1994
Morning in the Burned House, 1995
Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut, 1995
Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Candadian Literature, 1995
The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English, 1995
The Labrador Fiasco, 1996
Alias Grace, 1996
The Selected Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen, 1996
A Quiet Game: And Other Early Works, 1997
The Journals of Susanna Moodie, 1997
Eating Fire: Selected Poetry, 1965-1995, 1998
The Blind Assassin, 2000
Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer on Writing, 2002
Oryx and Crake, 2003
Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes, 2004
Curious Pursuits, 2005
The Penelopiad; the myth of Penelope and Odysseus, 2005
Writing with Intent: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose 1983-2005, 2005
Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood, 2006
Moral Disorder, 2006
Bashful Bob & Doleful Dorinda, 2006
The Tent, 2006
The Door, 2007
Payback: Debt as Metaphor and the Shadow Side of Wealth, 2008
Crimespotting, 2009
The Year of the Flood, 2009
5) “From infancy into her late adolescence, she spent at least half the year living in the wilderness of northern Ontario and Quebec” (Galegroup.com) with her father while he studied the insects there, giving her a much different childhood experience than most. In ’46 her family then moved to Toronto where her father taught at a university. The Toronto of her childhood was then used as the setting for her book, Cat’s eye, and her father was written as a scientist. While studying under well-known critic Northrop Frye at the University of Toronto, Atwood was introduced to the mythical verse of William Blake, which turned out to be “one of her strongest poetic influences” (Galegroup.com).
6) Margaret Atwood seems to favor dystopian themed stories which help to emphasize the opinions she is trying to get across about current day society. It is completely fictional writing, yet because the technology and events that occur would seem to be realistic in comparison to how technology and society are advancing today it hits a lot closer to home for the reader as they can relate more to what she is talking about.
7) Margaret Atwood’s writing styles and themes can be compared to; Ann Beattie, A.S. Byatt, Gail Godwin, Mary Gordon, Doris Grumbach, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Marge Piercy, Annie Proulx, Carol Shields, Jane Smiley, Alice Walker, and Fay Weldon.
8) Top 3 sources:
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