Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature [Paperback]

Published in 1972, Margaret Atwood's Survival helped to change the face of Canadian literature. Atwood, already an award-winning poet and an acclaimed novelist, here redefined what made the country's literature unique in a landscape dominated by its British and American counterparts. At the heart of Survival is the question, "Is there really something that can be called Canadian literature?"

At the time of its publication, Survival was both an enormous financial success, selling over 30,000 copies in its first year in print, and enormously controversial, fuelling debates about CanLit that have since become central to Canadian studies. It is a passionate and decidedly nationalistic look at what Atwood perceived as the struggle of the country's writers to survive the dominance of literatures from elsewhere. She argues that there is indeed a distinct Canadian literature, with its own preoccupations, themes, and ideas specific to its history, geopolitics, and landscape. Long after its publication, Survival makes for insightful and provocative reading. --Jeffrey Canton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

It’s a terrific book, enraging, alive–and I wish someone would give it to every continentalist in the Cabinet and every smug academic in all the cosy common rooms across this colonized land.”
–Christina Newman, Maclean’s

“Survival is a fine example of what happens when a first-rate intelligence takes on a task usually carried out by literary morons.”
–George Woodcock, Vancouver Sun

“…the most important book that has come out of this country.”
–Phyllis Grosskurth, Globe and Mail

When first published in 1972, Survival was considered the most startling book ever written about Canadian literature. Since then, it has continued to be read and taught, and it continues to shape the way Canadians look at themselves. Distinguished, provocative, and written in effervescent, compulsively readable prose, Survival is simultaneously a book of criticism, a manifesto, and a collection of personal and subversive remarks. Margaret Atwood begins by asking: “What have been the central preoccupations of our poetry and fiction?” Her answer is “survival and victims.”

Atwood applies this thesis in twelve brilliant, witty, and impassioned chapters; from Moodie to MacLennan to Blais, from Pratt to Purdy to Gibson, she lights up familiar books in wholly new perspectives.

It’s a terrific book, enraging, alive–and I wish someone would give it to every continentalist in the Cabinet and every smug academic in all the cosy common rooms across this colonized land.”
–Christina Newman, Maclean’s

“Survival is a fine example of what happens when a first-rate intelligence takes on a task usually carried out by literary morons.”
–George Woodcock, Vancouver Sun

“…the most important book that has come out of this country.”
–Phyllis Grosskurth, Globe and Mail

Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939, and grew up in northern Quebec and Ontario, and later in Toronto. She has lived in numerous cities in Canada, the U.S., and Europe.

She is the author of more than forty books — novels, short stories, poetry, literary criticism, social history, and books for children. Atwood’s work is acclaimed internationally and has been published around the world. Her novels include The Handmaid’s Tale and Cat’s Eye — both shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Robber Bride, winner of the Trillium Book Award and a finalist for the Governor General’s Award; Alias Grace, winner of the prestigious Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, and a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize and a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; and Oryx and Crake, a finalist for The Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Orange Prize, and the Man Booker Prize. Her most recent books of fiction are The Penelopiad, The Tent, and Moral Disorder. She is the recipient of numerous honours, such as The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in the U.K., the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature in the U.S., Le Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and she was the first winner of the London Literary Prize. She has received honorary degrees from universities across Canada, and one from Oxford University in England.

Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme Gibson.


From the Hardcover edition.