1. Margaret Atwood Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on Nov. 18, 1939.

2. Ma Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian author, poet, critic, feminist and social campaigner. She is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner over 60 awards including the Booker Prize and the Governor General’s Award.

3. Margaret Atwood Father was forest entomologist, family lived in wilds of Ontario, moved to Toronto First marriage ended in divorce, 1967 In 1972 Atwood married Graeme Gibson and moved to the small community of Alliston, Ontario with Gibson and his two young sons. In 1976, the couple welcomed their daughter, Jess Atwood Gibson. The couple remain happily married to this day.

4. Atwood’s Works Very prolific: writes novels, shorts stories, poems, non-fiction (including literary criticism, studies, autobiographical essays, book reviews, political essays, ecological writings, and other journalism and essays. Also beloved children’s author

5. Major Themes Concerned with Canada’s cultural identity Women’s lives and identities (feminism) Survivor & victim mentality Themes of Duality: Self & Other, Men & Women, Victim & Victimizer, City and Nature

6. Themes Con’t Existence in nature – ‘ founded on dead bodies ’ Human invasion of nature Nature as both valued and feared Civilization vs. wilderness Sense of alienation

7. IOC Themes For the purpose of the IOC, we will focus on five themes: 1. Canadian identity 2. Nature versus civilization 3. Gender issues-feminism 4. Politics 5. Relationships

8. Margaret Atwood’s Style Postmodern, self-reflexive mode (marked by or making reference to its own artificiality or contrivance) Mixes poetry and fiction, mixes genres such as Gothic, detective story, fairy tales, family romance, comedy, allegory, etc.) Ironic voice, personal, female Language as tool

9. Patterns in Poetry Paradox and struggles in art and life Psychological look at sexual politics Mythological and biblical allusions Recurring imagery about change & metamorphosis Archetypal journey Near annihilation followed by adaptation

10. Atwood’s Works Survival (1972, non- fiction) The Edible Woman (1969, novel) Surfacing (1973, novel) Lady Oracle (1977, novel) Dancing Girls (1977, short) Life Before Man(1979, novel) Dancing Girls and Other Stories (1982, short stories) Bodily Harm (1982, novel) The Handmaid's Tale (1985, novel) Bluebeard's Egg (1987, short stories)

11. Works continued Cat's Eye (1989, novel) Wilderness Tips (1991, short stories) The Robber Bride (1993, novel) Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994, short stories) Alias Grace (1996, novel) A Quiet Game(1997, ) The Blind Assassin (2000) Oryx and Crake (2003) The Penelopiad (2005)

12. Poetry Collections The Circle Game, 1964. The Animals in That Country, 1969 The Journals of Susanna Moodie, 1970. Procedures for Underground, 1970. Power Politics, 1971. You Are Happy, 1974. Selected Poems, 1976. Two-Headed Poems, 1978. True Stories, 1981. Interlunar, 1984. Selected Poems II, 1986. Selected Poems, 1990. Margaret Atwood Poems 1965-1975, 1991. Morning in the Burned House, 1995. Eating Fire, 1998.

13. Margaret Atwood Her Poetic Language is used in all her works; “ Around us is the illusion of infinite space or of no space, ourselves and the obscure shore which it seems we could touch, the water between an absence. The canoe ’ s reflection floats with us, the paddles twin in the lake. It ’ s like moving on air, nothing beneath us holding us up; suspended, we drift home ” (Surfacing 74-75).