Canadian writer Margaret Atwood: biography and work

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The famous writer Margaret Atwood has been delighting her admirers with new novels for almost sixty years, many of which have been awarded literary prizes and awards. Several of her works have been filmed, including the most famous novel, The Handmaid's Tale, which brought the author worldwide fame. Margaret published her first book in 1961, and her last novel will be published in 2114.

Biography

Margaret Atwood was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. Her father was a forest entomologist, and Margaret spent most of her childhood in northern Quebec, driving between Ottawa, Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie.

She didn't go to regular school until she was eight, so she became an avid reader of Grimm's fairy tales, comics and animal stories. She graduated from Leaside High School in Toronto in 1957. In the same city, she continued her studies at the university, in 1961 she received a bachelor's degree in English andFrench languages and philosophy.

Plays and poetry Margaret began composing at the age of six, at sixteen she realized that she wanted to write professionally. Published her poems and articles in Acta Victoriana College Literary Magazine. In late 1961, she published Double Persephone, a book of poetry, and won the Pratt Medal, which enabled her to go on to postgraduate studies at Radcliffe College, Cambridge. In 1962, after receiving a master's degree, Margaret Atwood continued her doctoral studies at Harvard University for two years.

Career

Since 1964 she taught English literature at the University of Vancouver, in 1965 at the University of Montreal. In 1967 Margaret, already Associate Professor of English Literature, teaches at York University.

Since 1971, editor and board member of the House of Anansi Press. She was a writer-in-residence at York University from 1971 to 1972 and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1985.

In 1986, Margaret is a visiting professor of English at New York University. Worked as a writer-in-residence at Macquarie University (Australia) in 1987.

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is also the inventor and developer of the LongPen and related technologies. She is the co-founder and director of Syngrafii Inc. - a company established in 2004 to develop and distribute LongPen.

Community activities

In the early 1970s, Margaret, as editor of Anansi Press and political cartoonist for Zeis Magazine, contributeda great contribution to the revival of Canadian literature. In 1972, Atwood published Survival, a study of Canadian literature.

In the 80s, Margaret took an active part in the fight against totalitarianism and censorship, being a member of Amnesty International and holding the post of vice-chairman of the Writers' Association of Canada since 1980, and since 1984 the post of president of the Canadian PEN Center.

Poetry collections

While Margaret Atwood was already well known as a novelist, she published fifteen volumes of poetry, including Talismans for Children (1965) and The Animals in That Country (1968). In 1980, her Suzanne Moody Diaries became a verse transcription of autobiographical sketches of the early settlers of Ontario. On the metaphors of "isolation" are built poems included in the collection Procedures for Underground, published in 1970.

In Power Politics, a 1971 collection of poetry, the writer speaks scathingly about her militant feminism. Margaret continues to develop this theme in the collection, published in 1974, You Are Happy, in which, having remade Homer's Odyssey, she writes on behalf of Circe, revising mythological images from feminist positions.

The contents of the True Stories collection, published in 1981, determined Margaret's social activities.

Storybooks

Atwood has published short stories in Tamarack Review, The Alphabet, Harper's Magazine and many more. In 1973followed by a collection of short stories "Comprehension". The theme of "gender-based" violence Margaret reflected in the book "Murder in the Dark", published in 1984.

Secondary Words, published in 1982, includes articles and reviews by Margaret Atwood. In the book "Bluebeard's Castle", published in 1983, the author reveals the misogyny of fairy-tale images. In 1991, a collection of short stories Wilderness Tips was published, in 1992 - Good Bones.

Atwood novels

In 1968, Margaret published her first novel, The Edible Woman, a metaphorical, witty story of a girl about to get married. Soon she felt like a trophy of the groom, doing everything according to the rules of his circle. Marian, the heroine of the novel, does not eat anything that was alive. Soon the carrot seems alive to her. The girl feels that she is losing herself, her identity and will soon be eaten by Peter, her fiancé.

In 1976, the novel "Madame Oracle" is published, about a girl who faked her death and fled to the other side of the ocean, where she remembers the past. The novel Life Before Man, published in 1979, is about a love triangle. It would seem, what could be more banal? But if we are talking about the work of Atwood, you can forget about the ordinary. This author's view of human relationships is unlike any other.

The action of the novel "Injury", published in 1982, takes place on one of the Caribbean islands, during political unrest. Here sounds the author's conviction that the responsibility for lawlessness isall people. In 1985, the novel The Handmaid's Tale, which brought the author popularity, was published.

Republic of Gilead

Margaret Atwood's book The Handmaid's Tale, which was awarded several awards, including the Booker Prize, tells about the totalitarian state of the future - the Republic of Gilead. In the new republic, there are constant wars, the birth rate is greatly reduced, and the leaders of the country treat women as property. Here, only one in a hundred women can have a child. Therefore, commoners are sent to special centers where they are prepared for only one thing - for conception and the birth of a child.

In Gilead, women have no rights to property and work, to read and write. They cannot love and remarry. The women were turned into slaves. Fredova, the heroine of the novel, tells an unthinkable story. She no longer has a husband, no daughter, not even a name. The way she is now called only speaks of belonging to the owner, whose name is Fred. She was even stripped of her clothes. Instead of dresses, there is now only a red hoodie, symbolizing fertility.

She is a maid. She is not supposed to remember, to talk. Once a day it is allowed to go shopping, once a month - to meet with the owner and pray that they have a he althy child. Slaves unable to give birth are declared "not women" and sent to camps where they die quickly.

All the abomination of the new world is covered by God's laws and quotes from the Bible. The police are "defenders of the faith", the cars are "chariots", the soldiers are "Angels". Shops have biblic al titles. But religious terminology in this world is nothing but an attempt to cover up political swindle. When selecting books, they tell women that it is for their benefit, so that they do not get upset. They turned off the radio and TV - again, taking care of women so that they don’t think about the bad.

The theme of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the position of women in society. About how thin the line is between tyranny and protection. About how easy it is to kill the freedom of thought and choice. About how easy it is to subjugate a person. An active fighter against totalitarianism, the author of this nerve-burning novel seems to be saying: "Don't let yourself be blinded!"

Other books

Margaret wrote novels such as Cat's Eye, published in 1989. For the novel "The Blind Assassin", published in 1989, the author was awarded three awards, including the prestigious Booker Prize. Margaret talks about the fate of mankind in the new millennium in the Mad Addam Trilogy. It includes the Booker Prize-winning Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Mad Addam.

In addition to Penelopiade (2005) and The Tent (2006), Margaret has released a book of essays, In Other Worlds: SF, which examines the nuances of the fantasy genre. In 2016, Atwood published Angel Catbird, a graphic novel dedicated to Canadian artist D. Kristom, which follows the superheroic adventures of a genetic engineer.

Witch Spawn is the first novel in a publishing series of play retellingsShakespeare. For retelling, Margaret Atwood chose his most difficult text - "The Tempest". The main character is removed from the leadership of the theater festival, and he leaves. He lives alone in the wilderness, talking with the ghost of his dead daughter. After many years, he finds work in the colony, where he puts on Shakespeare's plays. When his offenders come to his performance in full force, he comes up with revenge - a theatrical adventure with an unforeseen ending.

In 2014, the project of the Scottish artist K. Paterson - "Library of the Future" was launched. Once a year for a century, manuscripts of contemporary writers will be transferred to a specially created library. One thousand trees have been planted near Oslo to print books. But these trees will be cut down only in a hundred years - in 2114. Over the course of a century, the list of books will be replenished with a previously unpublished work, and it will be possible to read them in the same 2114.

The intrigue is that most of the authors have not yet been born, but the first writer to submit her manuscript in 2014 was Margaret Atwood with It's Scribbler Moon, the content and plot of which will not be known until a hundred years later.