Margaret Atwood

by Shannon Hengen

  1288. CALLWOOD, June. “Margaret Atwood.” June Callwood’s National Treasures. Toronto: Stoddart and Vision TV, 1994. 11-39.

  1289. CONTINELLI, Louise. “On the Streets of Toronto with Margaret Atwood.” Buffalo News (NY) 25 December 1994: Section: Lifestyles: 1. (2160 w).

  Atwood comments on setting The Robber Bride in Toronto: “It was a somewhat daring thing to do. People in Canada didn’t think it was real unless it was New York, Paris or London. But when you live in a smaller city, you know that lots of other people have written about New York, Paris or London. So you have more of a wide open field with Toronto. It would be similar with Buffalo.”

  On why she writes: It’s not the money or the prizes that keep Atwood at her art: “I suppose I write for some of the same reasons I read: to live a double life; to go places I haven’t been; to examine life on earth; to come to know people in ways, and at depths, that are otherwise impossible; to be surprised. Whatever their other reasons, I think all writers write as part of this sort of continuum: to give back something of what they themselves have received.”

  1290. DAVIES, Linda. “Interview.” Glimmer Train Stories 11 (Summer 1994): 25-34.

  1291. ENGELER, Beth. Margaret Atwood [et al]. [Sound recording]. [Troy, NY: Sage Colleges; Albany, NY: WAMC Public Radio, 1994. 1 sound cassette (8 min.). “She chilled us with The Handmaid’s Tale and charmed us with Wilderness Trips [sic]. Now, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is out with a new collection of short stories called Good Bones and Simple Murders. Beth Engeler has a profile.” Cassette also includes a story on the emerging female market for videogames as well as a profile of Beverly Carter Sexton. Recorded 9 December 1994.

  1292. FOX, Sue. “Margaret Atwood.” The Times 7 May 1994: Section: Features: s.p. (866 w). Available from Lexis-Nexis. Focuses on her youth. In high school, looking at pay-scales, Atwood noticed that home economists commanded the highest salaries. “I opted for extra lessons in domestic subjects but I should have chosen typing instead.” It is a constant regret that she made the wrong decision. “I can knit, crochet, set in a zipper and make excellent blancmange, but I barely type with four fingers. My handwriting is so bad, no one else can read it.”

  1293. GARRON, Rebecca. “Air of Turbulence.” Prairie Fire 15.3 (Autumn 1994): 24-34.

  1294. GREENWOOD, Gillian. Margaret Atwood. [Videorecording]. Sydney: SBS, 1994. 1 videocassette (VHS) (51 min.). Atwood discusses her life and work, especially The Robber Bride, while dramatizations from the book accompanied by commentary support the points made. Broadcast on 14 February 1994.

  1295. HELLMAN, Mary. “In the Company of Women: No Halos Allowed in Atwood’s Literary World.” San Diego Union 25 January 1994: LIT NewsBank 1994: 6: B8-10.

  1296. HOOVER, Bob. “Author Adds Her Share to List of Literature’s Wicked Women.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) 7 December 1994: Section: Arts & Entertainment: B1. Atwood interviewed by phone from New York mostly focussing on her hometown of Toronto.

  1297. KELLY, M. T. “Margaret Atwood.” One on One: The Imprint Interviews. Ed. Leanna Crouch. Toronto: Somerville House, 1994. 151-162. Reprint of interview which took place 29 August 1991 on the topic of Wilderness Tips. Originally broadcast on TV Ontario.

  1298. LYDEN, Jack. “Interview with Margaret Atwood.” NPR: All Things Considered 5 February 1994: Transcript # 1384-5. (1081w). Available from Lexis-Nexis. On Zenia and bad women.

  1299. LYKE, M. L. “Three Cheers for the Femme Fatale; The World Gets a Fascinating Villainess in Margaret Atwood’s Wicked New Novel.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 4 February 1994: Section: Living: D1. (1078 w). Atwood interviewed in Seattle before reading. On her writing style: “Tidy answers aren’t her style. That goes for books as well as interviews; Atwood, daughter of an Ottawa entomologist, likes language that ‘jumps the tracks.’ Fiction that ‘pushes against expectation.’ She calls it exploratory fiction; ‘I don’t write novels that tie things up.’ ‘People ask, ‘Why don’t the men resist Zenia? Why aren’t they stronger?’ says Atwood, who is in the process of negotiating movie rights for the highly filmable tale. ‘I tell them, ‘If they did, there wouldn’t be a story.’”

  1300. MILLER, Lauri. “On the Villainess.” San Francisco Review of Books 19.1 (February-March 1994): 30-32, 34.

  1301. NEIDORF, Robin M. “What Margaret Atwood Said to Me.” Iowa Woman 14.2 (1994): 39-40.

  1302. PINTARICH, Paul. “Margaret Atwood Relishes Life’s Enigmas.” The Oregonian (Portland) 28 January 1994: LIT NewsBank 1994: 12: D1-2.

  1303. SEAMAN, Donna. “The Booklist Interview: Margaret Atwood.” Booklist 90.10 (15 January 1994): 898-899.

  1304. SUJAN, Deehra, Margaret Atwood [et al.] [Sound recording]. Troy, NY: Sage Colleges; Albany, NY: WAMC Public Radio, 1994. “The Handmaid’s Tale is perhaps Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s most well-known novel. Deehra Sujan caught up with Atwood in Amsterdam.” (3:58). This interview is one of 4 on program (2 September 1994).

  1305. YOST, Barbara. “Skipping Tea with Margaret Atwood.” Bloomsbury Review 14.5 (September-October 1994): 3, 16-17.

  Scholarly Resources

  1306. “Atwood, Margaret.” The Writer’s Directory 1994-96. 11th ed. Ed. Miranda H. Ferrara and George W. Schmidt. Detroit, MI; London; Washington, DC: St. James Press, ©1994. 45. List of publications, awards, and academic positions held.

  1307. “Atwood, Margaret (Eleanor).” The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. New York: Columbia UP, 1994. 55. Biographical reference.

  1308. “Atwood, Margaret Eleanor.” Larousse Dictionary of Writers. Ed. Rosemary Goring. Edinburgh; New York: Larousse, 1994. 44. Biographical reference.

  1309. “Margaret Atwood.” Great Women Writers: The Lives and Works of 135 of the World’s Most Important Women Writers, from Antiquity to the Present. Ed. Frank N. Magill. New York: Henry Holt, 1994. 20-24. Biographical and literary sketch of Atwood.

  1310. “Margaret Atwood.” Poetry Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of the Most Significant and Widely Studied Poets of World Literature. Vol. 8. Ed. Drew Kalasky. Detroit, MI, Washington DC, London: Gale Research, 1994. 1-44. Primarily excerpts of critical pieces on Atwood’s poetry; also contains a brief biography and bibliography.

  1311. ADAMS, Alice E. “The Handmaid’s Tale: A Banished Mother.” Reproducing the Womb: Images of Childbirth in Science, Feminist Theory, and Literature. Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell UP, 1994. 104-114. Analysis of the novel, with some comparison to Huxley’s Brave New World.

  1312. AISENBERG, Nadya. Ordinary Heroines: Transforming the Male Myth. New York: Continuum, 1994. passim. Brief discussion of Atwood’s message in the transformation of the new heroine in a postmodern setting.

  1313. ALAIMO, Stacy. “Cartographies of Undomesticated Ground: Nature and Feminism in American Women’s Fiction and Theory.” PhD thesis. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1994. 304 pp. This thesis “examines how American women writers from the early nineteenth century to the present have rearticulated the gendered ideologies of nature. Insights from feminist theory, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary postmodern theories of nature enable me to reveal how women’s texts transform the representations promoted by literary, popular, and political discourses.” (Author). Chapter 4 includes references to Atwood. For more see DAI-A 55.09 (March 1995): 2825.

  1314. ALLEN, Lisa F. “Vision Quest: The Search for Creative Harmony in Two Novels by Margaret Atwood.” MA thesis. Kent State University, 1994. 86 pp.

  1315. AMENDE, Coral. Legends in Their Own Time. New York; London; Toronto; Sydney; Tokyo; Singapore: Prentice Hall General Reference, 1994. See especially “Atwood, Margaret,” 13.

  1316. BACH, Susanne. “Bildliche Bildung-Natur- und Zivilisationsparadigmen in Margaret Atwoods Cat’s Eye.” Das Natur / Kultur-Paradigma in Der Englischsprachi-gen Erzählliteratur Des 19 und 20. Jahrhunderts: Festschrift Zum 60. Geburtstag Von Paul Goetsch. Ed. Konrad Groß, Kurt Müller, and Meinhard Winkgens. Tübingen: Narr, 1994. 380-397.

  1317. BALDWIN, Dea
n, and Gregory L. MORRIS. The Short Story in English: Britain and North America: An Annotated Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ; London: Scarecrow Press and Pasadena; Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1994. 35. Two sources cited for study of Atwood.

  1318. BALESTRA, Gianfranca. “Topografie della mente: Analisi di ‘Polarities’ di Margaret Atwood.” Moderni e post moderni: Studi sul racconto canadese del Nove-cento. Abano Terme: Piovan Editore, 1994. 25-41. Analysis in Italian of “Polarities” from Dancing Girls.

  1319. BATSTONE, Kathleen Loren. “Unlocking Pandora’s Box: Female Desire in Three Works by Canadian Female Writers.” MA thesis. Acadia University, 1994. 88 pp. Also available on microfiche from Canadian Theses Service (1994). A study of Lady Oracle as well as Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women and Audrey Thomas’s Songs My Mother Taught Me. For more see MAI 33.04 (August 1995): 1082.

  1320. BEARD, William. “The Canadianness of David Cronenberg.” Mosaic 27.2 (June 1994): 113-133. Survival and Second Words cited; Frye/Atwood model discussed.

  1321. BENNETT, Donna. “English Canada’s Postcolonial Complexities.” Essays on Canadian Writing 51-52 (Winter 1993-Spring 1994): 164-210. Describes Surfacing as an example of postcolonial literature. Also cites Atwood as a writer who is able to “articulate the nature of the Canadian experience.”

  1322. BENTLEY, D. M. R. Mimic Fires: Accounts of Early Long Poems on Canada. Kingston; Montreal; London; Buffalo: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1994. passim. Two references to The Journals of Susanna Moodie.

  1323. BERG, Temma F. “Sisterhood Is Fearful: Female Friendship in L. M. Montgomery.” Harvesting Thistles: The Textual Garden of L. M. Montgomery: Essays on Her Novels and Journals. Ed. Mary Henley Rubio. Guelph: Canadian Children’s Press, 1994. 36-49. Influence of Montgomery seen in Lady Oracle and, especially, Cat’s Eye.

  1325. BISHOP, M. G. H. “The Genius of Disease. Culture Dependent Illness: Keats, Mozart and Margaret Atwood.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 87.2 (February 1994): 67-69. The Handmaid’s Tale is used as an example of culture dependent sickness.

  1326. BOOKER, M. Keith. Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. West-port, CT; London: Greenwood Press, 1994. See especially “Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985),” 78-83, which is a summary of plot and theme as well as “Skepticism Squared: Western Postmodernist Dystopias,” 141-172, which cites The Handmaid’s Tale as an example of Western postmodernist dystopian fiction. Suggests that it represents a change for feminist writers who traditionally wrote from a utopian viewpoint.

  1327. CAMINERO-SANTANGELO, Marta. “Moving Beyond ‘The Blank White Spaces’: Atwood’s Gilead, Postmodernism, and Strategic Resistance.” Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne 19.1 (1994): 20-42. Suggests that The Handmaid’s Tale represents postmodern feminism by its depiction of resistance to society’s order and the restraints put upon this resistance. Also references Surfacing.

  1328. CARRERA SUAREZ, Isabel. “‘Yet I Speak, Yet I Exist’: Affirmation of the Subject in Atwood’s Short Stories.” Margaret Atwood: Writing and Subjectivity: New Critical Essays. Ed. Colin Nicholson. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. 230-247. Traces the evolution of the subject and language from Dancing Girls to Bluebeard’s Egg to Wilderness Tips.

  1330. CHEN, Zhongming. “Theorising about New Modes of Representation and Ideology in the Postmodern Age: The Practice of Margaret Atwood and Li Ang.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue canadienne de littérature com-parée 21.3 (September 1994): 341-354. Both writers “achieve postmodern irony with a feminist cutting edge,” “break down traditional symbolic or semiotic systems,” and “subvert patriarchal ideologies.”

  1331. CHOE, Okyoung. “Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: A Survival Story.” Canadian Literature: Introductory and Critical Essays. Ed. Sang Ran Lee, Kwangsook Chung, and Myungsoon Shin. Yonsei University: Center for Canadian Studies, Institute of East and West Studies, published by Seoul Press, 1994. 147-158. Discusses The Handmaid’s Tale as a representative Canadian novel.

  1332. COLES EDITORIAL BOARD. Atwood—The Edible Woman: Notes. Toronto: Coles, 1994. 121. Study guide.

  1333. COOLEY, Dennis. “Nearer by Far: The Upset ‘I’ in Margaret Atwood’s Poetry.” Margaret Atwood: Writing and Subjectivity: New Critical Essays. Ed. Colin Nicholson. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. 68-93. Discusses difference between the early and the later poetry in terms of the speaker’s role.

  1334. DAVEY, Frank. “Agony Envy: Margaret Atwood’s ‘Notes Towards a Poem.’” Canadian Literature: Recent Essays. Ed. Manorama Trikha. New Delhi: Pencraft International, 1994. 249-259. “Notes Towards a Poem That Can Never Be Written” was first published in True Stories, ©1981.

  1335. ______. Canadian Literary Power. Edmonton: NeWest, 1994. See especially Chapter 6: “Agony Envy: Atwood’s ‘Notes Towards a Poem.’” 151-165. “Notes Towards a Poem That Can Never be Written” was originally published in True Stories, ©1981.

  1336. ______. Karla’s Web: A Cultural Investigation of the Mahaffy-French Murders. Toronto: Penguin, 1994. Murder in its cultural context includes references to At-wood’s Bodily Harm (194-198), The Edible Woman (152), The Handmaid’s Tale (198-201,) and Surfacing (213-214).

  1337. DAVIDSON, Arnold E. Coyote Country: Fictions of the Canadian West. Durham, NC; London: Duke UP, 1994. passim. Four references to Atwood’s works.

  1338. DE ANGELIS, Valerio Massimo. “‘It Isn’t a Story I’m Telling’: The Handmaid’s Tale come romanzo storico.” Rivista di studi canadesi 7 (1994): 87-96.

  1339. DEER, Glenn. Postmodern Canadian Fiction and the Rhetoric of Authority. Montreal; Kingston; London; Buffalo, NY: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1994. See especially “The Handmaid’s Tale: Dystopia and the Paradoxes of Power,” 110-129, which analyzes The Handmaid’s Tale as a narrative and the power given to the narrator.

  1340. DEVANEY, Sheila Ann. “The Reconfiguration of Civilization and Nature in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and The Handmaid’s Tale.” MA thesis. University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 1994. 58 pp.

  1341. DODSON, Danita Joan. “Women’s Utopia: The ‘Imagined Community’ in Other Worlds.” PhD thesis. University of Southern Mississippi, 1994. 335 pp. The Handmaid’s Tale discussed along with Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Buchi Emecheta’s Rape of Shavi, Bessie Head’s Question of Power, and Alice Walker’s Color Purple. For more see DAI-A 56.03 (September 1995): 922.

  1342. DONAWERTH, Jane L., and Carol A. KOLMERTEN. “Introduction.” Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference. Ed. Jane L. Donawerth and Carol A. Kolmerten. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 1994. 12. Reference to The Handmaid’s Tale as failed female heroism.

  1343. DOPP, Jamie. “Subject-Position as Victim-Position in The Handmaid’s Tale.” Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne 19.1 (1994): 43-57. A critique of The Handmaid’s Tale. The author suggests that, unlike most critical commentary, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts patriarchy rather than opposing it.

  1344. EVANS, Mark. “Versions of History: The Handmaid’s Tale and Its Dedicatees.” Margaret Atwood: Writing and Subjectivity: New Critical Essays. Ed. Colin Nicholson. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. 177-188. Relates influence of the dedicatees, Mary Webster and Perry Miller, on this novel.

  1345. FINDLEY, Timothy. “Atwood, Margaret.” Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Vol. 1. Ed. Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly. London; New York: Routledge, 1994. 75-77. Biographical reference.

  1346. FORTH, Sarah S. “Women’s Responses to Evil: A Literary and Theological Study.” PhD thesis. Northwestern University, 1994. 226 pp. “This study investigates women’s responses to evil through close readings of imaginative works of literature by three contemporary North American women: Annie Dillard, Margaret Atwood, and Paule Marshall. The intent is to discover resources that enable women to generate creative alternatives to evil….Readings of the three literary ‘friends’ under cons
ideration—Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard, Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood, and Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall—demonstrate that each provides distinct responses to evil. Dillard offers to a suffering world her gift of artistic sacrifice; Atwood prescribes subversion of the existing, unjust social order; and Marshall limns for us a sanctified prophet struggling for her people through a return to the spiritual blessings of her African and Black church heritage. Commonalities also exist among the three works….” (Author). For more see DAI-A 56.03 (September 1995): 985.

  1347. GARDNER, Laurel J. “Pornography as a Matter of Power in The Handmaid’s Tale.” Notes on Contemporary Literature 24.5 (November 1994): 5-7. Contends that the power described in The Handmaid’s Tale is more reprehensible than pornography.

  1348. GEBBIA, Alessandro. “‘Surviving Survival’: Survival ovvero istruzioni per l’uso.” Rivista di studi canadesi 7 (1994): 117-124.

  1349. GILBERT, Emily. “Home / City / Nation: Identity, Ideology and Place in Toronto Women’s Literature.” MA thesis. York University, 1994. 218 pp. Also available on microfiche from Canadian Theses Service (1995). “This thesis explores some of the issues relating to identity, ideology and place in some Canadian women’s novels set in the city of Toronto in the middle 1970s. At this time, not only was the city undergoing radical changes, but women’s place and role in the city were also changing. The urban fiction depicts many of these transformations. Three novels will be examined in detail: Margaret Atwood’s Lady Oracle (1976), Helen Weitlzweig’s Basic Black with Pearls (1980) and Marian Engel’s Lunatic Villas (1981).” (Author). For more see MAI 34.01 (February 1996): 70.