A twood, M argaret

Abstract

“We need to know about here, because here is where we live,” wrote Margaret Atwood in her landmark literary manifesto, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972b, 19). Atwood has contributed to that literature in myriad ways, becoming the twentieth century's most celebrated and well‐known Canadian writer. It is not an exaggeration to say that Atwood put Canada on the literary map. She was a central voice in the late 1960s and early 1970s, promoting the importance of Canadian national identity against the cultural inferiority complex that had come to dominate Canadian society, particularly in relation to the United States. Survival became something of a rallying cry to writers and readers of that generation. However, it is not only the politics of Canadian nationalism that has informed Atwood's writing. She has taken on many of the political and social issues of her time, including women's equality, violence against women, totalitarianism, religious fundamentalism, environmentalism, genetic modification, American cultural imperialism, consumerism, freedom of speech, authors' rights, Amnesty International, and many more. Atwood is an enviably multitalented writer and thinker: a poet, novelist, short story writer, literary critic, editor, satirist, children's author, painter and illustrator, cultural commentator, and mentor to numerous Canadian writers.