Contesting Epistemological Dependency and Contextualising Space: A Postcolonial Critique of Margaret Atwood’s Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature

Abstract

Survival, on its first publication in the year 1972, was hailed as “a ground-breaking study of archetypal patterns” in Canadian Literature. One of the salient features of the book is its emphasis on contextualising Canadian literature in a space of its own, through an intrinsic study of its patterns, images and motifs. Space was celebrated as a source of pride by Canadians. To Atwood, Space hence, becomes a metaphor of the postcolonial literary landscape, wherein lies the inherent source of strength and pride of the Canadian writer, and therefore should be reclaimed or conquered from the imperialist onslaught. Therefore by advocating the need for an authentic Canadian literature that effectively expresses the Canadian identity and its cultural survival against the imperial cultural onslaught, Atwood argues for a postcolonial space or a space of intervention that not only challenges epistemological dependency, but also helps create positive new identities by writing back to the centre, and thereby negating the indebtedness of colonised peoples to colonisers‟ discursive constructions and modes of thinking