Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature is a survey of
Canadian literature by
Margaret Atwood, one of the most well-known Canadian authors in the world. It was first published by
House of Anansi in 1972.
A work of literary criticism, as Atwood writes in her preface to the 2004 edition,
Survival was an attempt to deal with her belief that in the early 1970s, Canadian literature was still looking for a grounding in a
national identity that would be comparable to that of
Great Britain or the
United States (Atwood 2004, 3). The thematic approach of the book and its intended non-academic audience (6) corresponds with a focus on contemporary Canadian literature as a point of entry. Therefore, the book does not provide an extensive survey of the historical development of Canada's literature, but an introduction to what is
Canadian about Canadian literature for readers as citizens of Canada (cf. 22). In
Survival, literature emerges as central to the development of national identity, what she calls a sense of "here".
To Atwood, the central image of Canadian literature, equivalent to the image of the
island in
British literature and the
frontier in
US-American literature, is the notion of
survival and its central character the
victim. Atwood claims that both English and French
novels,
short stories,
plays and
poems participate in creating this theme as the central distinguishing feature of the nation's literature.
:What, Why, and Where Is Here?
#Survival#Nature the Monster#Animal Victims#First People: Indians and Eskimos as Symbols#Ancestral Totems: Explorers, Settlers#Family Portrait: Masks of the Bear#Failed Sacrifices: The Reluctant Immigrant#The Casual Incident of Death: Futile Heroes, Unconvincing martyrs and Other Bad Ends#The Paralyzed Artist#Ice Women vs Earth Mothers: The Stone Angel and the Absent Venus#Québec: Burning Mansions#Jail-Breaks and Re-Creations
Atwood, Margaret.
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2004. ISBN 0-7710-0872-4
*
Review of the 2004 edition of Survival at
thepeerreview.ca*
CBC radio interview with Margaret Atwood on
Survival when it first came out. Broadcast Nov. 6, 1972.
*
Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Survival
