Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature"'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. |
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Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (Large Print 16pt) Margaret Atwood No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
A. J. M. Smith Al Purdy American animal stories artist attitude audience authors babies become Bissett Brébeuf Bush Canada Canadian literature Canadian Poetry Canadian writers chapter characters Civil Elegies coffin culture David dead death Earle Birney English Canadian escape exploration F. R. Scott fact failure feel Felix fiction Five Legs French Canadian Gibson Graeme Grandfather Grandparents Hecate hero hostile human images immigrants Indians interest James Reaney John Newlove killed kind land landscape Library List literary live look Macmillan magazine Margaret mother motif Mountain Mounties Nature Newlove novel Ontario P.O. Box pattern Philibert play Poets Position Four Position Three Pratt protagonist publishers Purdy Québec Québec literature Rapunzel Syndrome Ribs of Death Riel says Selected Poems Seton settlers snow society Stone Angel Street survival symbol theme there's things Toronto tradition trapped University victim vision woman
