Margaret Atwood

by Shannon Hengen

  546.PECK, Elizabeth G. “More Than Ideal: Size and Weight Obsession in Literary Works by Marge Piercy, Margaret Atwood, and Andre Dubus.” Platte Valley Review 18.1 (Winter 1990): 69-75. The narrator of Lady Oracle uses eating and being fat as a means of exercising control over her mother.

  547.PELLAUER, David. “Narrative Identity and Religious Identity.” The Daemonic Imagination: Biblical Text and Secular Story. Ed. Robert Detweiler and William G. Doty. American Academy of Religion. Studies in Religion. Ed. Lawrence S. Cunningham, no. 60. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. 99-110. Discussion centering on Paul Ricoeur’s Time and Narrative as a means of understanding “The Sin Eater.”

  548.PIUSINSKA-WOZNIAK, Maria. “An American Aspect of the Search for the Canadian Identity: Hugh MacLennan’s The Precipice and Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing.” Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny 37.4 (1990): 343-354. In both novels, “the Canadian state of mind is identified with innocence as its dominating feature.”

  549.QUIGLEY, Theresia Maria (FIAND). “The Evolution of the Child Protagonist in the Quebec and English-Canadian Adult Novel.” PhD thesis. Université de Sher-brooke, 1990. 274 pp. Atwood one of several writers examined. For more see DAI-A 52.11 (May 1992): 3934.

  550.RIBEIRO, Ofelia. “A Different Thread: An Analysis of the Diary Form in the Representation of the Female Self.” MA thesis. Concordia University (Canada), 1990. 168 pp. “The contemporary woman author has experimented with different techniques in an attempt to find a form appropriate for her complex concerns as both woman and author. The extensive use of the diary in fictional form is a case in point as it utilizes and transforms what is primarily a nonfictional structure into a literary one. How this is done is examined using both a theoretical and a practical approach. The use of theoretical criticism, notably feminist literary criticism, permits a critique of the differences inherent in literature written by men versus that written by women as well as how these differences translate into praxis. A historical perspective of the development of the diary, both in its fictional and its nonfic-tional form, will reveal how extensively it has been used in the past as well as how it is currently being employed. Several novels, Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, will form the thrust of the literary interpretation of the contemporary diary novel in an effort to examine the nature of the representation of the female self.” (Author). For more see MAI 30.04 (Winter 1992): 1027.

  551.RICHARDS, Mary Elizabeth. “The Politics of Language in Margaret Atwood’s Later Fiction.” PhD thesis. University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 1990. 253 pp. “Margaret Atwood is a Canadian author who believes that language is inherently political. In her fiction, linguistic acts of influence and control are made visible in the characters’ interactions, revealing the political nature of interpersonal communication. Although critics have examined language in Atwood’s earlier works, the present study addresses the relationship between language and power in Atwood’s later prose published from 1979 through 1988, including analysis of four novels and one short story from the collection Bluebeard’s Egg. The Introduction assesses the role of language in the practice of Atwood’s art and in her theory of writing. In addition, it contrasts Atwood’s views on language with current thought in Feminist Criticism and Linguistic Theory in order to provide a context for understanding her assumptions. After this background, Chapter One explores the communication problems and strategies of three characters in Life Before Man (1979) as they deal with conflicts in their relationships. The second chapter contrasts the characters’ use of language in the short story ‘Loulou; or, The Domestic Life of the Language’ and discusses Loulou’s attempt to determine how the words of others affect her identity. Chapter Three analyzes the main character’s development in Bodily Harm (1981); Rennie Wilford changes her attitude toward language and vows to use her professional writing to reflect and affect the realities of her society. The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is the subject of Chapter Four, which examines how Offred, the narrator, overcomes restrictions on communication in her future world and uses her voice to undermine the totalitarian Republic of Gilead….” (Author). For more see DAI-A 51.11 (May 1991): 3739.

  552.ROWLANDS, Helen Caroline Anne. “The Relationship of Textuality to Concepts of the Self in the Novels of Margaret Atwood.” MSc. Econ. thesis. University of Cardiff, 1990.

  553.SANDIN, Maria. “Moten med skuggan: Om kvinnors sjalvblivelse.” Kulturtid-skriften HORISONT 37.5 (1990): 2-7. Treatment of women in Atwood compared to Inger Edelfeldt. Swedish.

  554.SINGH, Sunaina. “Escape as Evolution in Lady Oracle and Where Shall We Go This Summer?” Ambivalence: Studies in Canadian Literature. Foreword by Margaret Atwood. Ed. Om P. Juneja and Chandra Mohan. New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1990. 160-170. Joan’s flight allows her to evaluate her life and return to a more positive reality.

  555.SPARROW, Fiona. “‘This Place Is Some Kind of a Garden’: Clearings in the Bush in the Works of Susanna Moodie, Catherine Parr-Traill, Margaret Atwood and Margaret Laurence.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 25.1 (1990): 24-41. Moodie’s texts are called on by Atwood to illustrate the value of good art and good order in the wilderness.

  556.THOMPSON, Lars, and Becci HAYES. Companions to Literature: A Teacher’s Guide for The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood. Mississauga, ON: S.B.F. Media, ©1990.

  557.TIGER, Virginia. “Cultures of Occupation and the Canadian [Con]Script[ion]: ‘Lessing Changed My Life.’” In Pursuit of Doris Lessing: Nine Nations Reading. Ed. Claire Sprague. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. 89-101. Survival and Second Words referred to in passing.

  558.TSCHACHLER, Heinz. “Margaret Atwoods Surfacing (1972), George Grants Kanada und Die ‘Tragische Weltanschauung.’” Ökologie und Arkadien: Natur und nordamerikanische Kultur der siebziger Jahre. Frankfurt am Main; Bern; New York; Paris: Peter Lang, 1990. 247-296.

  559.VAN BERKEL, Elizabeth Christine. “The Female Artist’s Room as a Metaphor for Language in Canadian Postmodern Fiction.” MA thesis. Dalhousie University, 1990. 129 pp. “This thesis involves the application of feminist ideas expressed in Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘A Room of One’s Own’ to five Canadian novels. Four of these five, The Handmaid’s Tale, Beautiful Losers, Intertidal Life, and Ana Historic, are here regarded as postmodern fiction while The Fire-Dwellers, as it is most commonly, is described as modern, though a modernist text comparable in theme to The Handmaid’s Tale. All five novelists, including Laurence, use the female artist’s room as a metaphor for language, as a structure, both physical and psychological, which parallels her/his protagonist’s experience of language. They imply that the female artist’s creativity is inhibited in a society with patriarchal origins. In making conscious what has been true at least since Woolf’s day, these five Canadian novels accurately reflect the concerns of many Canadian novelists. As postmodern writers, they advocate a suspicion for all norms and institutions which are socially approved. And as writers with strong feminist concerns, they both appeal to and expand upon the opinions of Woolf.” (Author). For more see MAI 30.04 (Winter 1992): 1037.

  560.VEVAINA, Coomi S. “Wastelanders in This New Gilead: An Analysis of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.” Ambivalence: Studies in Canadian Literature. Foreword by Margaret Atwood. Ed. Om P. Juneja and Chandra Mohan. New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1990. 221-240. Detailed examination of setting and plot.

  561.WAGENER, Christel. “Margaret Atwood: Katzenauge.” Weimarer Beiträge: Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft, Ästhetik und Kulturtheorie 36.11 (1990): 1815-1820. Primarily about Cat’s Eye. In German.

  562.WALKER, Nancy A. Feminist Alternatives: Irony and Fantasy in the Contemporary Novel by Women. Jackson; London: UP of Mississippi, 1990, passim. Includes The Handmaid’s Tale, Lady Oracle, Surfacing, and Cat’s Eye, with works by Piercy, Godwin, Drabble, Weldon, Lessing, Walker, and others, in a study of “unacceptable fantasies” and irony in realistic women’s novels.

  563.WALL, Kathleen. “He
aling the Divisions: Goddess Figures in Two Works of Twentieth-Century Literature.” Goddesses in Religions and Modern Debate. Ed. Larry W. Hurtado. University of Manitoba. Studies in Religion, Vol. 1. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. 205-226. Atwood’s female deity in Surfacing is more grounded in the real world than is Lessing’s in Marriages; however, similarities exist between the 2 figures.

  564.WILSON, Sharon R. “Fairy-Tale Cannibalism in The Edible Woman.” Cooking by the Book: Food in Literature and Culture. Ed. Mary Anne Schofield. Bowling Green, OH: Popular, 1990. 78-88.

  565.______. “A Note on Margaret Atwood’s Visual Art and Bodily Harm.” Antipodes 4.2 (Winter 1990): 115-116. Explicates 2 of Atwood’s art works, relating the imagery to Bodily Harm.

  566.WILT, Judith. “‘We Are Not Dying’: Abortion and Recovery in Four Novels by Women.” Abortion, Choice, and Contemporary Fiction: The Armageddon of the Maternal Instinct. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1990. 67-100. Surfacing, and 3 other novels by Didion, Felicitas, and Piercy, convey beginnings, birth, and survival through an abortion theme.

  567.WITHIM, Philip. “Arrival as Departure in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and Bodily Harm.” Aspects of Commonwealth Literature. Vol. 1. London: University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 1990. 76-84. Atwood’s concerns broaden from the more private issues of Surfacing to the more social ones of Bodily Harm; still, both have a sub-theme of male oppression. The paper concludes with a short discussion of these themes in Atwood’s other novels.

  568.WOODCOCK, George. Introducing Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing. Canadian Fiction Studies, No. 4. Toronto: ECW Press 1990. 74. Contains a brief Atwood chronology, chapters on “the importance of the work,” and “critical reception,” and a section on “reading the text,” which details Atwood’s individual expression, structure and plot, use of metaphor, character development, ambiguous themes, and the narrator’s rite of passage.

  569.WRIGHT, Terence R. “Margaret Atwood and St. Mark: The Shape of the Gaps.” The Daemonic Imagination: Biblical Text and Secular Story. Ed. Robert Detweiler and William G. Doty. American Academy of Religion. Studies in Religion. Ed. Lawrence S. Cunningham, no. 60. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1990. 181-190. Wolfgang Iser’s theory of “implied reader” offers the chance to fill in the gaps in these stories and form answers to spiritual questions.

  570.WYATT, Jean. Reconstructing Desire: The Role of the Unconscious in Women’s Reading and Writing. Chapel Hill; London: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. See especially “Toward a More Creative Autonomy: To the Lighthouse, Violet Clay, Bodily Harm, ‘How I Came to Write Fiction,’ and On Not Being Able to Paint.” 103-125. This chapter discusses the female artist characters in these works in terms of their having to choose between work and love and their belief that they must keep total autonomy from emotional ties.

  571.YORK, Lorraine M. “The Habits of Language: Uniform(ity), Transgression and Margaret Atwood.” Canadian Literature 126 (Autumn 1990): 6-19. For Atwood heroines, the uniform often marks the limits and the transgression, and the struggle between the two.

  572.ZUO, Qiang-hua. On Cat’s Eye. s.l.: Sichuan International Studies University, 1990.

  Reviews of Atwood’s Works

  573.Barbed Lyres: Canadian Venomous Verse. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1990.

  Quill and Quire 56.11 (November 1990): 20. By Mark GERSON.

  574.Best American Short Stories. Selected by Margaret Atwood with Shannon Rave-nel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

  Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) 14 January 1990. NewsBank 1990: 11: C14-D1. By Christine WALD-HOPKINS.

  San Francisco Chronicle 21 January 1990: Section: Sunday Review: 4. By Cathy HO. (745 w).

  575.Cat’s Eye. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart; New York: Doubleday; London: Bloomsbury, 1988.

  Belles Lettres 5.3 (Spring 1990): 9. By B. A. St. ANDREWS.

  Booklist 86.10 (15 January 1990): 994. ANON.

  Canadian Literature 127 (Winter 1990): 135-138. By Sherrill GRACE.

  Cross-Canada Writers’ Magazine 12.1 (1990): 27-28. By Veronica ROSS.

  Hudson Review 42.4 (Winter 1990): 664-665. By Gary KRIST.

  Landfall 44.1 (March 1990): 78-79. By Katherine MAYNARD.

  Library Journal 115.1 (January 1990): 50.

  Magill’s Literary Annual 1(1990) Pasadena, CA; Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1990: 91-93. By Steven G. KELLMAN.

  Presbyterian Record 114.3 (March 1990): 30. By Bertram Deh ATWOOD.

  Sojourners (Washington, DC) 19.4 (May 1990) 40-42. By Karen PETERSON.

  576.The Edible Woman. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart; London: Virago, 1989 ©1969.

  CM 18.1 (January 1990): 24. By Ellen ROBSON.

  Times (London) 4 March: 38. By Sabine DURRANT. Also reviews Virago’s reissued Lady Oracle, Bodily Harm, and The Handmaid’s Tale.

  577.For the Birds. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1990. 54 pp.

  Toronto Star 13 December 1990: Section: Neighbors: W12. By Kim PITTAWAY. (698 w).

  578.The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Fawcett, 1985; Fawcett Crest, [1987].

  English Journal 79.6 (October 1990): 82-83. By Judith S. CHELTE.

  Progressive 54.9 (September 1990): 40-42. By Gene BLUESTEIN.

  Reading Women 1.1 (January-February 1990): 1, 8.

  579.The Handmaid’s Tale. Recorded Books.

  Book World 20.51 (23 December 1990): 8. Audio versions of Cat’s Eye (Bantam) and Bluebeard’s Egg (Brilliance) are also reviewed. By Vic SUSSMAN.

  580.Margaret Atwood: Conversations. Ed. Earl G. Ingersoll. Princeton, NJ: Ontario Review Press; Willowdale, ON: Firefly Books, 1990.

  Booklist 86.18 (15 May 1990): 1772. By Ray OLSON.

  Books in Canada 19.8 (November 1990): 40-41. By Brian FAWCETT.

  CM 18.6 (November 1990): 289. ANON.

  Vancouver Sun 18 August 1990: D18. By Karenn KRANGLE.

  Winnipeg Free Press 15 September 1990: 22. By Maggie DWYER.

  581.Murder in the Dark. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1983.

  Malahat Review 92 (Fall 1990): 121. By Jay RUZESKY.

  582.Œil-de-chat. Translated by Hélène Fillion. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1990. [Cat’s Eye.]

  L’Actualité 15.13 (1 September 1990): 77. By Gilles MARCOTTE.

  Châtelaine 31.9 (September 1990): 32. By Monique ROY.

  Nuit blanche 42 (December 1990-February 1991): 10-13. By Cécilia WIKTOROWICZ.

  583.Selected Poems: 1966-1984. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1990.

  Books in Canada 19.9 (December 1990): 49. By Barbara CAREY.

  Toronto Star 22 December 1990: Section: Weekend: H17. By Don RUTLEDGE. (751 w).

  Reviews of Adaptations of Atwood’s Works

  584.The Handmaid’s Tale. [Motion Picture]. Screenplay by Harold Pinter; directed by Volker Schlondorff. United States: Cinecom Entertainment Group, 1990. 12 reels of 12 on 6 (ca. 9324 ft.).

  Anglican Journal 116. 5 (May 1990): 15. By Philip JEFFERSON.

  Boston Globe 9 March 1990: Section: Arts & Film: 25. By Jay CARR. (874 w).

  Boston Globe 18 March 1990: Section: Arts & Film: B31. By John KOCH. (879 w).

  Boston Herald 9 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: E10-11. By James VERNIERE.

  Catholic New Times 14.9 (29 April 1990): 6. By Paul CONSTABILE.

  Chicago Sun-Times 16 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: E8-9. By Roger EBERT.

  Christian Science Monitor 10 April 1990: Section: The Arts: 15. By David STERRITT. (553 w).

  Daily (Los Angeles) 7 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: D14. By Tom JACOBS.

  Dallas Times Herald 16 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: F3. By David KRONKE.

  Denver Post 16 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: E3-4. By Roger EBERT.

  Detroit News 16 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990 42: E12. By Susan STARCK.

  English Review 1 (April 1991): 36-37. By Bernard RICHARDS.

  Feminisms 3.2 (1 March 1990): 16-17. By Mary SULLIVAN.

  Film Journal 93.3 (March 1990): 13-14. By David NOH.

/>   Films in Review 41.6-7 (June-July 1990): 368. By Nathaniel BIRD.

  Gay Community News 17.34 (11 March 1990): 9. By Natalie DIFFLOTH.

  The Guardian (London) 1 November 1990: s.p. By Derek MACOLM. (265 w). Available from Lexis-Nexis.

  Hartford (CT) Courant 16 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: E5. By Malcolm L. JOHNSON.

  The Humanist 50.3 (May-June 1990): 25. By Edd DOERR.

  The Humanist 50.3 (May-June 1990): 26-28, 44. Companion review to Doerr (above). By Michael CALLERI.

  The Independent (London) 4 November 1990: Section: Sunday Review: 17. By Anthony LAKE. (1354 w).

  Journal (Atlanta, GA) 16 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: E6-7. By Eleanor RINGEL.

  Legal Times 2 April 1990: Section: After Hours: 54. By Louise P. ZANAR. (1089 w).

  Los Angeles 35 (April 1990): 178. By Merrill SHINDLER.

  Los Angeles Times 16 March 1990: Section: Calendar: 36. By Peter RAINER. (1108 w).

  New Directions for Women 19.3 (May-June 1990): 7. By Laura FLANDERS.

  New Internationalist 213 (November 1990): 30.

  New Republic 202.12 (19 March 1990): 26-27. By Stanley KAUFFMANN.

  New York Post 7 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: E14-F1. By David EDELSTEIN.

  New York Times 9 March 1990: Section: C: 17. By Janet MASLIN. (968 w).

  Newsweek 26 March 1990: Section: The Arts: 54. By Jack KROLL. (390 w).

  Off Our Backs 20.6 (June 1990): 12-13. By D. A. CLARKE.

  Oregonian (Portland) 16 March 1990. FTV NewsBank 1990: 42: F2. By Ted MAHAR.

  Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1990. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa, FL: University of Tampa, ©1990 [appeared 1992]. 92-96. By Cynthia BAUGHMAN.

  Positif 355 (September 1990): 77. By Philippe ROUYER.

  La revue du cinéma 463 (September 1990): 46. By François CHEVASSU.

  Roanoke Times & World News (Roanoke, VA) 12 May 1990: Section: Extra: E8. By Donnell STONEMAN. (757 w).