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Survival, A Thematic Guide To Canadian Literature




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 Novel s, Short Stories , Play s and Poems participate in creating this theme as the central distinguishing feature of the nation's literature.

=Table of Contents=

: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

=References=

Atwood, Margaret. ''Survival, A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature''. Toronto: O.W. Toad Ltd., 2004. ISBN 0-7710-0872-4

=External links=

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''