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61st out of 99 books
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1 voter
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
by
Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)
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 manif...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
March 23rd 2004
by McClelland & Stewart
(first published October 4th 1972)
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Ms Atwood is as magnificent a reader as she is a writer. And she's read more Canlit than I probably ever will. Perhaps I'll read less than I might have done after this: she doesn't make it sound terribly cheery.
A point that she freely acknowledges. For example on page 281 she asks the question; " What happens in Canadian literature when boy meets girl? And what sort of boy, and what sort of girl? If you've got this far, you may predict that when boy meets girl she gets cancer and he gets hit by...more
I picked up the book Survival A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature because as much as I do love Canadian Literature, I'm not a terribly critical reader and I thought I could benefit from an esteemed author such as Margaret Atwood pointing me in the direction of what I should be reading. She states in the preface to this book that she undertook its writing with the hope that it could be used as a teaching guide in high school/college and I'm afraid that it came off a little textbookish to me....more
this is really brilliant. as someone who is interested in canadian history and culture, i found this insight into the canadian psyche fascinating. i am sure that it offended many when it first came out, and i am also reasonably certain that there are parts of it that ms. atwood would want to modify (this edition was published originally in 1972), but it is truly groundbreaking.
it is also fun to read. sure, there are lots of references to books and authors i'm not familiar with, but the way she w...more
it is also fun to read. sure, there are lots of references to books and authors i'm not familiar with, but the way she w...more
So, yeah—a pretty esoteric title, given that I live in the Southeastern U.S. and my experience with CanLit is almost exclusively limited to Scott Pilgrim (which was written, you know, thirty years after Atwood was writing anyway). It is rather a pleasant introduction, nonetheless, to the literature of Canada, and is enjoyable even for a complete novice as myself. Its very niceness is practically bewildering, given how the reader is repeatedly impressed with the judgement that all of the greatest...more
Ever the Canadian Ms. Atwood humbly prefaces this book by telling us it isn't mean to be literary criticism or a highly intellectual probing of Canadian literature, then covers quite a span of the country's most well known writers. I've long admired her turn of phrase and abiity to distill things immense into simple images, ideas that remain. In retrospect, her division of early Canadian literature into two categories seems on target. I would say Canada lacked it's own identity until about 1970...more
Absolutely brilliant! Atwood has showed once again her absolute mastery of the Art. She dances gracefully from novel to poetry, to science fiction, to satire, to essay. Absolutely brilliant piece of work, as always educating but fun a light-hearted. It reminded me of V. Woolf's Three Guineas (esp. the postmodernist, feminist approach). definitely makes for a great read, together with the Edible Woman. I'd give it more stars if I could.
aka canlit is depressing and insecure and if you finish this book, you can take a long break from it to enjoy bodice ripping, serial killer american paperback novels of sex, murder and intrigue that do not benefit society whatsoever.
aka winter in canada is generally very, very long, contains a great deal of snow and has, thusly, penetrated the psyche of its writers until it owns a piece of their very souls. chilling their metaphors to ice.
aka winter in canada is generally very, very long, contains a great deal of snow and has, thusly, penetrated the psyche of its writers until it owns a piece of their very souls. chilling their metaphors to ice.
There are not enough stars for this book. If you want to understand what sets Margaret Atwood apart, you must read this. I won't give a synopsis, becuase it's right there in the title.
Oct 26, 2012
Christina
added it
Assigned reading in high school. Useful for understanding CanLit (of a certain period unless it's been updated). Not really worth rating, though.
Even after forty years, a worthwhile introduction to Canadian literature. For me as a non-expert, however, Atwood's approach seems somewhat monothematic, since *all* themes she touches upon, eventually seem to some down to variations of, well, survival. But maybe that's how Canadian literature used to be...
MA is the most intelligent, articulate woman I have ever met! I just love reading her writing!
Wow, Canadian lit is very depressing. At least we were able to develop our own unique traits. Again, very well written.
Wow, Canadian lit is very depressing. At least we were able to develop our own unique traits. Again, very well written.
Never could stand Atwood's fiction. Turns out I can't abide her non-fiction, either. Oh well. It's a classic of Canadian literary studies, just not for me.
Excellent overview of Can Lit and interesting to see where we have moved to - or if we have moved.
I don't care if it's considered passé: I love this book.
a little dry...not one of my favorite atwood works.
A must for can-lit readers.
Nov 21, 2012
Giles Ayers
added it
Dece
Apr 10, 2013
prosesroses
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
canlit-history-criticism,
2013-reads
Great Book. Accessible to everyone as in those who wish to have a starting point and frame of reference to get into Canadian Literature. Full of witticisms and sarcasm to be engaging read. A little dry but more accessible than it had any expectation to be. **more to say for review later...
Excellent, though now a little outdated.
Essential reading for anyone interested in Canadian art and culture.
Nothing new under the sun.
May 15, 2013
Christine
marked it as to-read
May 14, 2013
Tim Maskell
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May 12, 2013
Kourtney
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May 08, 2013
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May 06, 2013
Noemi Zabarelos
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Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, childr...more
More about Margaret Atwood...
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, childr...more
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“What a lost person needs is a map of the territory, with his own position marked on it so he can see where he is in relation to everything else. Literature is not only a mirror; it is also a map, a geography of the mind. Our literature is one such map, if we can learn to read it as our literature, as the product of who and where we have been. We need such a map desperately, we need to know about here, because here is where we live. For the members of a country or a culture, shared knowledge of their place, their here, is not a luxury but a necessity. Without that knowledge we will not survive.”
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8 people liked it
“...the values ascribed to the Indian will depend on what the white writer feels about Nature, and America has always had mixed feelings about that. At one end of the spectrum is Thoreau, wishing to immerse himself in swamps for the positive vibrations; at the other end is Benjamin Franklin, who didn't like Nature. [p.91]”
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