Margaret Atwood was born on 18 November 1939 in Ottawa, and grew up in northern Ontario and Quebec, and in Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master’s degree from Radcliffe College.
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction, but is best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1969), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Her newest novel, MaddAddam (2013), is the final volume in a three-book series that began with the Man-Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003) and continued with The Year of the Flood (2009). The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short fiction) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, a collection of non-fiction essays appeared in 2011. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth was adapted for the screen in 2012 (From Margaret Atwood's Official website).
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction, but is best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1969), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Her newest novel, MaddAddam (2013), is the final volume in a three-book series that began with the Man-Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003) and continued with The Year of the Flood (2009). The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short fiction) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, a collection of non-fiction essays appeared in 2011. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth was adapted for the screen in 2012 (From Margaret Atwood's Official website).
Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once, and has been a finalist for the Governor General's Award several times, winning twice. She is also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-profit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada's writing community. Among innumerable contributions to Canadian literature, she was a founding trustee of the Griffin Poetry Prize.
While she is best known for her work as a novelist, she has also published fifteen books of poetry. Many of her poems have been inspired by myths and fairy tales, which have been interests of hers from an early age. Atwood has published short stories in Tamarack Review, Alphabet, Harper's, CBC Anthology, Ms., Saturday Night, and many other magazines. She has also published four collections of stories and three collections of unclassifiable short prose works.
Personal life: In 1968, Atwood married Jim Polk; they were divorced in 1973. She formed a relationship with fellow novelist Graeme Gibson soon after and moved to a farm near Alliston, Ontario, north of Toronto, where their daughter Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson was born in 1976. The family returned to Toronto in 1980. Regarding her religion, Atwood was a noted humanist, and in 1987 she was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.
Atwood and feminism: Atwood, who was surrounded by the intellectual dialogue of the female faculty members at Victoria College at University of Toronto, often portrays female characters dominated by patriarchy in her novels. Still, Atwood denies that The Edible Woman, for example, published in 1969 and coinciding with the early second wave of the feminist movement, is feminist and claims that she wrote it four years before the movement. Atwood believes that the feminist label can only be applied to writers who consciously work within the framework of the feminist movement.
Contribution to the theorizing of Canadian identity: Atwood’s contributions to the theorizing of Canadian identity have garnered attention both in Canada and internationally. Her principal work of literary criticism, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, is considered outdated in Canada but remains the standard introduction to Canadian literature in Canadian Studies programs internationally. In Survival, Atwood postulates that Canadian literature, and by extension Canadian identity, is characterized by the symbol of survival. This symbol is expressed in the omnipresent use of “victim positions” in Canadian literature. These positions represent a scale of self-consciousness and self-actualization for the victim in the “victor/victim” relationship. The "victor" in these scenarios may be other humans, nature, the wilderness or other external and internal factors which oppress the victim. Atwood’s Survival bears the influence of Northrop Frye’s theory of garrison mentality; Atwood instrumentalizes Frye’s concept to a critical tool.
Political involvement: Although Atwood's politics are commonly described as being left-wing, she has indicated in interviews that she considers herself a Red Tory in the historical sense of the term. Atwood and her partner Graeme Gibson are members of the Green Party of Canada (GPC) and strong supporters of GPC leader Elizabeth May. Atwood has strong views on environmental issues, and she and her partner are the joint honorary presidents of the Rare Bird Club within BirdLife International. She has been chair of the Writers' Union of Canada and president of PEN Canada, and is currently a vice president of PEN International (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
While she is best known for her work as a novelist, she has also published fifteen books of poetry. Many of her poems have been inspired by myths and fairy tales, which have been interests of hers from an early age. Atwood has published short stories in Tamarack Review, Alphabet, Harper's, CBC Anthology, Ms., Saturday Night, and many other magazines. She has also published four collections of stories and three collections of unclassifiable short prose works.
Personal life: In 1968, Atwood married Jim Polk; they were divorced in 1973. She formed a relationship with fellow novelist Graeme Gibson soon after and moved to a farm near Alliston, Ontario, north of Toronto, where their daughter Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson was born in 1976. The family returned to Toronto in 1980. Regarding her religion, Atwood was a noted humanist, and in 1987 she was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.
Atwood and feminism: Atwood, who was surrounded by the intellectual dialogue of the female faculty members at Victoria College at University of Toronto, often portrays female characters dominated by patriarchy in her novels. Still, Atwood denies that The Edible Woman, for example, published in 1969 and coinciding with the early second wave of the feminist movement, is feminist and claims that she wrote it four years before the movement. Atwood believes that the feminist label can only be applied to writers who consciously work within the framework of the feminist movement.
Contribution to the theorizing of Canadian identity: Atwood’s contributions to the theorizing of Canadian identity have garnered attention both in Canada and internationally. Her principal work of literary criticism, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, is considered outdated in Canada but remains the standard introduction to Canadian literature in Canadian Studies programs internationally. In Survival, Atwood postulates that Canadian literature, and by extension Canadian identity, is characterized by the symbol of survival. This symbol is expressed in the omnipresent use of “victim positions” in Canadian literature. These positions represent a scale of self-consciousness and self-actualization for the victim in the “victor/victim” relationship. The "victor" in these scenarios may be other humans, nature, the wilderness or other external and internal factors which oppress the victim. Atwood’s Survival bears the influence of Northrop Frye’s theory of garrison mentality; Atwood instrumentalizes Frye’s concept to a critical tool.
Political involvement: Although Atwood's politics are commonly described as being left-wing, she has indicated in interviews that she considers herself a Red Tory in the historical sense of the term. Atwood and her partner Graeme Gibson are members of the Green Party of Canada (GPC) and strong supporters of GPC leader Elizabeth May. Atwood has strong views on environmental issues, and she and her partner are the joint honorary presidents of the Rare Bird Club within BirdLife International. She has been chair of the Writers' Union of Canada and president of PEN Canada, and is currently a vice president of PEN International (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
Margaret Atwood’s reviews and critical articles have appeared in Canadian Literature, Maclean’s, Saturday Night, This Magazine, New York Times Book Review, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star, The Nation, Books In Canada, The Washington Post, The Harvard Educational Review, and many others.
Atwood’s works have been translated into French, German, Italian, Farsi, Urdu, Estonian, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Catalan, Turkish, Russian, Finnish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Greek, Polish, Japanese, Icelandic, Spanish, Hebrew, and several other languages. All of the fiction is available in paperback in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.
Surfacing was produced as a film by a Canadian production company in 1981. The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter, directed by Volker Schlorndorf and released in 1990, starring Natasha Richardson and Robert Duvall. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is premiering a performance based on the same novel in 2013. The Robber Bride was adapted as a TV movie featuring Mary Louise Parker in 2007 (From Margaret Atwood's Official website).
Atwood’s works have been translated into French, German, Italian, Farsi, Urdu, Estonian, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Catalan, Turkish, Russian, Finnish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Greek, Polish, Japanese, Icelandic, Spanish, Hebrew, and several other languages. All of the fiction is available in paperback in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.
Surfacing was produced as a film by a Canadian production company in 1981. The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter, directed by Volker Schlorndorf and released in 1990, starring Natasha Richardson and Robert Duvall. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is premiering a performance based on the same novel in 2013. The Robber Bride was adapted as a TV movie featuring Mary Louise Parker in 2007 (From Margaret Atwood's Official website).
Atwood’s writing is noted for its careful craftsmanship and precision of language, which give a sense of inevitability and a resonance to her words. In her fiction Atwood has explored the issues of our time, capturing them in the satirical, self-reflexive mode of the contemporary novel. She has written to date a staggering 14 novels, nine short-story collections, 16 books of poetry, and ten volumes of non-fiction that have collectively garnered two Governor General’s Awards, a Giller Prize, a Man Booker Prize and numerous other awards and accolades. A Companion of the Order of Canada, Margaret Atwood is among the most prolific and celebrated writers in Canadian history.
Margaret Atwood has received numerous honorary degrees, including ones from Concordia University, University of Toronto, Université de Montréal, Harvard University, and The Royal Military College of Canada. In addition to being a Companion of the Order of Canada, in 2012 she was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canada (From The Canadian Encyclopedia's Website).
Margaret Atwood has received numerous honorary degrees, including ones from Concordia University, University of Toronto, Université de Montréal, Harvard University, and The Royal Military College of Canada. In addition to being a Companion of the Order of Canada, in 2012 she was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canada (From The Canadian Encyclopedia's Website).
Epilogues
1. Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
2. In June 2014, The Irish writer Eimear McBride won the Baileys book prize for her first novel, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, beating bookie's favourite Donna Tartt's gigantic third novel, The Goldfinc, Audrey Magee's second world war story, The Undertaking, and Margaret Atwood's fourteenth novel, The MaddAddam.
3. Some parts of this article can be also viewed as a Persian Text here:
1. Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
2. In June 2014, The Irish writer Eimear McBride won the Baileys book prize for her first novel, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, beating bookie's favourite Donna Tartt's gigantic third novel, The Goldfinc, Audrey Magee's second world war story, The Undertaking, and Margaret Atwood's fourteenth novel, The MaddAddam.
3. Some parts of this article can be also viewed as a Persian Text here:
Manouchehr Saadat Noury, PhD
