Margaret Atwood

by Shannon Hengen

  910.KRYWALSKI, Diether. Knaurs Lexikon der Weltliteratur. Munich: Droemer Knaur, 1992. See especially “Atwood, Margaret.” 43. Brief biographical sketch.

  911.KUESTER, Martin. Framing Truths: Parodic Structures in Contemporary English-Canadian Historical Novels. Toronto; London; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1992. See especially Chapter 5: “Atwood: Parodies from a Feminist Point of View.” 124-147. Analyzes Bodily Harm and The Handmaid’s Tale as variations on traditional literary genres.

  912.LANDIS, Kathleen M. “The Rhetoric of Madness.” PhD thesis. University of Southern California, 1992. “This dissertation proposes a new category for contemporary fiction—‘schizophrenic fiction’—in which madness plays a key rhetorical role. The rhetoric of madness inheres primarily in its function as a means of persuasion, used by a growing number of writers, consciously or unconsciously, to drive home their messages about life in the world today. Although the messages vary from one novel to the next, and a single text typically contains multiple messages, works of schizophrenic fiction all convey one central message: for many, life today is so painful, so oppressive, or so incomprehensible that their ‘sanest’ recourse is insanity. ‘Insanity’ in these cases takes the form of a schizophrenic psychic rift, which gives rise to two realities—one real, one imagined—in which an individual lives. Unlike clinical schizophrenia, however, which is triggered largely by brain abnormalities, fictionalized schizophrenia results directly and exclusively from external sources. To the schizophrenic characters, their access to alternate realities, whether temporary or permanent, is not viewed as a disease. Rather, it is a mechanism for coping with their lives, serving variously as a way to escape, to fill emotional voids, to feel empowered, and even to come to terms with losses. Five contemporary novels are examined: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls, and Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.” (Author). For more see DAI-A 53.09 (March 1993): 3209.

  913.LAURET, Maria Laetitia Josephine. “Liberating Literature: American Women’s Writing and Social Movements from the Thirties to the Present.” DPhil thesis. University of Sussex (UK), 1992. 301 pp. Shows the new kind of writing emerging from the 1960s civil rights movements with critical discussions on the works of Marge Piercy, Alice Walker, Marilyn French, Agnes Smedley, Josephine Herbst, Ann Petry, Meridel LeSueur, Kate Millett, Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, and Sue Miller. For more see DAI-C 54.04 (Winter 1993): 986.

  914.MANGUEL, Alberto. “À la découverte de la littérature canadienne.” Revue de l’Impériale 76 (Summer 1992): 20-23. Atwood mentioned several times in this survey article.

  915.MARSHALL, Tom. Multiple Exposures, Promised Lands: Essays on Canadian Poetry and Fiction. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, 1992. See especially “Margaret Atwood’s Cool.” 73-78. In this collection of Marshall’s essays, Atwood is mentioned in essays on other authors as well.

  916.MASSÉ, Michelle A. The Name of Love: Women, Masochism, and the Gothic. Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell UP, 1992. See especially “Resisting the Gothic: Subversion and Lady Oracle.” 250-264. Joan’s splitting of her identity is her subversion until she finds she no longer needs to do so; then, she is able to act upon what she has learned.

  917.MAYO, Kathleen A. The Struggle for Success in Achieving Self-Identity: A Thesis.” MA thesis. State University of New York College at Oneonta, 1992. Atwood major author referenced.

  918.McKAY, George. “‘Time Back Way Back’: ‘Motivation’ and Speculative Fiction.” Critical Quarterly 34.1 (Spring 1992): 102-116. The Handmaid’s Tale is one of several novels examined to study boundary between real and imaginary.

  919.MILDON, Denis A. (Denis Albert). “Narrative Inquiry in Education in the Light of Contemporary Canadian Fiction.” EdD thesis. University of Toronto, 1992. 358 pp. Also available on microfiche from Canadian Theses Service (1993). Atwood’s fiction examined along with that of Timothy Findley, Michael Ondaatje, and Audrey Thomas.

  920.MINER, Valerie. Rumors from the Cauldron: Selected Essays, Reviews, and Reportage. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992. See especially “Atwood in Metamorphosis: An Authentic Canadian Fairy Tale.” 152-166. Essay on Miner’s visit with Atwood; reprinted from Her Own Woman, ©1975.

  921.MISHLER, Barbara Ensor. “Interpersonal Conflict in Women’s Friendships: Patterns and Strategies from Women’s Novels.” PhD thesis. University of Oregon, 1992. “Novels offer a rich source of relevant situations in which to study conflict behavior among female friends. The value of this study lies in the fact that such conflict is studied within a realistic context which includes the consequences of decisions made during conflict episodes. [Alice Walker’s] The Color Purple, [At-wood’s] Cat’s Eye, [Marilynne Robinson’s] Housekeeping, and [Marge Piercy’s] Braided Lives, all novels by women written during the 1980s, were analyzed for conflict scenes among women friends. Analysis was conducted for topic, personality type (independent/traditional), self-monitoring, self-esteem, strategies, and repair attempts. The most frequent topics were men and abandonment. No preference for strategy was found for independent or traditional personality types. Repair attempts were infrequent and appeared only after extreme disagreement.” (Author). For more see DAI-A 53.10 (April 1993): 3409.

  922.MOREY, Ann-Janine. “Margaret Atwood and Toni Morrison: Reflections on Postmodernism and the Study of Religion and Literature.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 60.3 (Fall 1992): 493-513. Discusses Surfacing and Beloved as examples of women’s fiction being outside and threatening to traditional religious reality.

  923.______. Religion and Sexuality in American Literature. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne: Cambridge UP, 1992. See especially “Fatal Abstractions: Metaphors of Embodiment in the Gynocentric Imagination.” 200-235. Atwood, along with Mary Gordon, Marilynne Robinson, and Louise Erdrich, utilizes metaphors of flight and water to explore the establishment and crossing of boundaries.

  924.MOYES, Lianne. “‘Canadian Literature Criticism’: Between the Poles of the Universal-Particular Antinomy.” Open Letter, Eighth Series 3 (Spring 1992): 28-46. Discussion of Atwood’s criticism speaks of her view of Canadian literature as involving psychology, sociology, and geography.

  925.NELSON, Sandra. “Blood Taboo: A Response to Margaret Atwood’s ‘Lives of the Poets.’” Mid-American Review 12.2 (1992): 111-115. Personal reaction to the short story.

  926.PACHE, Walter. “Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale.” Anglistentag 1991 Düsseldorf: Proceedings. Ed. Wilhelm G. Busse. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1992. 386-400.

  927.PATTON, Marilyn. “Tourists and Terrorists: The Creation of Bodily Harm.” PLL: Papers on Language and Literature 28.2 (Spring 1992): 150-173. The Margaret Atwood Papers, at the University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, were examined, and these manuscripts revealed a progression in Atwood’s fiction of political themes, as an act in itself and not simply a setting for the fiction.

  928.PERKIN-McFARLAND, Anne Louise. “Connection and Dislocation: Themes in Recent Short Stories by Canadian Women Writers.” MA thesis. University of New Brunswick, 1992. 195 pp. Also available on microfiche from Canadian Theses Service (1992). In addition to Atwood, Janette Turner Hospital, Alice Munro, and Miriam Waddington are discussed. “Common themes emerge in the stories by these writers, most notably the theme of connection and dislocation. The term ‘connection’ is borrowed from Carol Gilligan who, using Nancy Chodorow’s theories, explains that women’s identities are dependent on ongoing relationships or connections. The term ‘dislocation’ is borrowed from the title of Janette Turner Hospital’s collection of short stories. Dislocation is essentially the same as alienation, a theme which is found throughout Canadian literature.” (Author). For more see MAI 31.03 (Fall 1993): 1024.

  929.PICHECA, Donna M. “The Men We Love to Hate: A Study of Atwood’s Male Characters.” MA thesis. McMaster University, 1992. 89 pp.

  930.POOLE, Ralph J. Sind Frauen essbar? Zur Symptoma
tik des weiblichen Körpers im Werk Margaret Atwoods. Egelsbach [Germany]: Verlag Hänsel-Hohenhausen, 1992. Study of anorexia nervosa in Lady Oracle and bulimia in The Edible Woman.

  931.POST, Stephen G. “The Moral Meaning of Relinquishing an Infant: Reflections on Adoption.” Thought: A Review of Culture and Idea 67.265 (June 1992): 207-220. Surfacing is discussed as a classic example in section titled “Abortion Trauma?”

  932.RELKE, Diana M. A. “Myths of Nature and the Poetry of Canadian Women: An Alternative Reading of Literary History.” New Literatures Review 23 (Summer 1992): 31-49. Atwood quoted and discussed regarding her literary criticism of Canadian poetry.

  933.RINDISBACHER, Hans J. The Smell of Books: A Cultural-Historical Study of Olfactory Perception in Literature. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1992. Footnote on 229 discusses the olfactory in The Handmaid’s Tale as a means of switching between the present and past of the novel’s setting.

  934.ROSS, Catherine. “Calling Back the Ghost of the Old-Time Heroine: Duncan, Montgomery, Atwood, Laurence, and Munro.” Such a Simple Little Tale: Critical Responses to L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Ed. Mavis Reimer. Metuchen, NJ; London: The Children’s Literature Association and Scarecrow Press, 1992. 39-55. Compares Anne and Joan of Lady Oracle, especially in their use of the mirror double.

  935.SAGE, Lorna. Women in the House of Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1992. See especially Chapter 5, “Divided among Ourselves,” 153-193, and most particularly 161-168 which discusses Atwood’s place among postwar women novelists.

  936.St. PETER, Christine. “Eye to I, Tail to Tale: Atwood, Offred and the Politicized Classroom.” Atlantis 17.2 (Spring-Summer 1992): 93-103. Outline given of the discussion of The Handmaid’s Tale in a women’s studies course; novel is used to provide a common point of departure.

  937.SALYER, Gregory. “Signs, Symbols, and the Sacred: Representation and Meaning in Contemporary Literature.” PhD thesis. Emory University, 1992. 238 pp. “This dissertation in the field of Religion and Literature examines current conceptualizations of the sacred and representation. It attempts to provide an answer to the question of how the sacred can be understood and represented in light of post-structuralism’s problematization of all representation….Chapter Two shows how the differences between signs and religious symbols and sacred symbols play out in the life of the female narrator of Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing.” (Author). For more see DAI-A 53.04 (October 1992): 1148.

  938.SENKPIEL, Aron. “From the Wild West to the Far North: Literary Representations of North America’s Last Frontier.” Desert, Garden, Margin, Range: Literature on the American Frontier. Ed. Eric Heyne. New York: Twayne, 1992. passim. Atwood’s writings mentioned in terms of northern quest literature.

  939.SHOEMAKER, Adam. “Crossing at the Intersection: Native Australian and Canadian Writing.” Meridian 11.1 (May 1992): 4-13. Atwood cited (9), saying humor is absent from writings about native peoples.

  940.SMYTH, Jacqui. “‘Divided Down the Middle’: A Cure for The Journals of Susanna Moodie.” Essays on Canadian Writing 47 (Fall 1992): 149-162. Argues that Atwood’s “Afterword” is an integral part of the work and should be read with the poems, not discarded.

  941.STAELS, Hilde. “Metaphor and Mind-Style in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye.” BELL: Belgian Essays on Language and Literature (1992): 91-108.

  942.STEIN, Karen F. “Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: Scheherazade in Dystopia.” University of Toronto Quarterly 61.2 (Winter 1991-92): 269-279. The narrator and the narrative itself are examined, including issues of language, creating a self, the desire to tell one’s story and the fear of doing so, and the multiple interpretations of a narrative.

  943.STREHLE, Susan. Fiction in the Quantum Universe. Chapel Hill; London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992. See especially “Margaret Atwood: Cat’s Eye and the Subjective Author.” 159-189. Subject and object are structured according to the new physics and are shown in the use Atwood makes of time and tense.

  944.STROBEL, Christina. “On the Representation of Representation in Margaret At-wood’s Surfacing.” Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 40.1 (1992): 35-43. Painting and film are represented in a power structure which is deconstructed in the same process.

  945.STUMMER, Peter O. “Perception of Difference: The Conceptual Interaction of Cultures in Literary Discourse.” Us / Them: Translation, Transcription and Identity in Post-Colonial Literary Cultures. Ed. Gordon Collier. Amsterdam; Atlanta: Rodopi, 1992. 307-337. Atwood’s “The Man from Mars” is cited as an example of the clash of culture.

  946.TAYLOR, Donna Joyce. “The Development of a Computer-Generated Promptbook for Performance Studies.” MA thesis. Arizona State University, 1992. Uses selections from The Handmaid’s Tale.

  947.THIEME, John. “A Female Houdini: Popular Culture in Margaret Atwood’s Lady Oracle.” Kunapipi 14 (1992): 71-80. Discusses the treatment of popular culture in a variety of Margaret Atwood’s works.

  948.THOMPSON, Lee Briscoe. “Atwood and Drabble: Life after Radiance.” Re-Siting Queen’s English: Text and Tradition in Post-Colonial Literatures. Ed. Gillian Whitlock and Helen Tiffin. Amsterdam; Atlanta: Rodopi, 1992. 37-46. Compares and contrasts the works of Drabble and Atwood; concludes both portray ordinary life in a similar but different fashion.

  949.TSCHACHLER, Heinz. “Janus, Hitler, the Devil, and Co.: On Myth, Ideology, and the Canadian Postmodern.” Postmodern Fiction in Canada. Ed. Theo D’haen and Hans Bertens. Amsterdam: Rodopi; Antwerp: Restant: 1992. 27-66. Atwood’s use of myth and nationalism is examined, especially regarding victims and survival.

  950.WALKER FIELDS, Ingrid. “Paranoia, Politics, and the Popular Imagination: Conspiracy in Contemporary American Literature.” PhD thesis. University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992. 216 pp. “The postmodern American novel is acutely concerned with conspiracy theory as a form of narrative and political authority. In the works of Pynchon, Doctorow, Atwood and DeLillo, conspiracy emerges as the focal point of public memory and social resistance. This study traces conspiracy as a literary metaphor for a transformation in the American national identity, from a public besieged with internal enemies to one which identifies its own government as the internal enemy. Against these dynamics, narrative memory in the postmodern novel becomes a means of reconstructing and authorizing the political, personal and historical self. I identify three periods in this century’s construction of conspiracy narratives: we have moved from a government-authorized narrative to a popular response to this narrative, back to the social text of this conspiracy dialectic, in search of a comprehensive construct.” (Author). For more see DAI-A 53.12 (June 1993): 4325.

  951.WEBB, Janeen. “Feminism and Science Fiction.” Meanjin 51.1 (1992): 185-198. Examines The Handmaid’s Tale in terms of female complicity leading to the situation described in the novel.

  952.WEBER, Jean Jacques. Critical Analysis of Fiction: Essays in Discourse Stylistics. Amsterdam; Atlanta: Rodopi, 1992. See especially “The Process of Schema Liberation: Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing.” 65-81. A semiotic approach is used to analyze this novel by examining all meanings of the title.

  953.WESSELING, Lies, and José van DIJCK. “The Issue of Responsibility in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.” Against Patriarchal Thinking: Proceedings of the 6th Symposium of the International Association of Women Philosophers (IAPh) 1992. Ed. Maja Pellikaan-Engel. Amsterdam: VU UP, 1992. 243-251.

  954.WHALEN, Terence. “The Future of a Commodity: Notes Toward a Critique of Cyberpunk and the Information Age.” Science-Fiction Studies 19.1 (March 1992): 75-88. Brief contrast of The Handmaid’s Tale with cyberpunk fiction.

  955.WHALEN-BRIDGE, John. “Outside the Whale: Reading the American Political Novel in the Age of Reagan.” PhD thesis. University of Southern California, 1992. “There is a specific kind of book we call ‘the political novel.’ Only when we take the American resistance to politicized literature into account can we appreciate the artistry with which American
novelists have presented political visions. [This thesis] critically reviews academic studies to demonstrate that definitions not grounded in a particular historical moment are insufficient. Critics and theorists reviewed include Speare, Milne, Blotner, Howe, Jameson, and Pease. A definition of the political novel is then tested….[The chapter entitled] ‘The Handmaid’s Tale and the (Impure) Art of the Political Novel’ examines the freedom with which a non-American author artistically deploys the thematic of ‘impurity’ to organize an anti-Fundamentalist political novel.” (Author). For more see DAI-A 54.04 (October 1993): 1371.

  956.WOOD, Diane S. “Bradbury and Atwood: Exile as Rational Decision.” The Literature of Emigration and Exile. Ed. James Whitlark and Wendell Aycock. Lubbock: Texas Tech UP, 1992. 131-142. Choosing the hard life of the exile is preferable to staying in a repressive society where books and reading are the objects of government suppression.

  957.YORK, Lorraine. “Prayers for Canadian Daughters: Gender Specificity and The Parental Advice Poem.” Atlantis 18.1-2 (Summer-Fall 1992): 60-69. “There are a number of recent Canadian poems which offer advice to daughters, and all of them revise the best-known twentieth-century example of this sub-genre: William Butler Yeats’s ‘Prayer for My Daughter’ (1921). Most of these are by women poets such as Margaret Atwood, Mary di Michele, and Jan Conn, who re-write Yeats by turning his patriarchal advice upside-down; their strategy is one of contradiction and correction. The case of Michael Ondaatje’s ‘To a Sad Daughter’ complicates this dynamic of corrective challenge, however, since, as a male poet whose subject position is inevitably gendered ‘male,’ Ondaatje must struggle with the Yeatsian authority within himself before he can proceed to revise his poetic Father. The process of revising the advice poem is subtly informed by the gender of the poetic re-visor.” (Journal abstract).