Strange Things

Description

In Strange Things, Atwood turns to the literary imagination of her native land, as she explores the mystique of the Canadian North and its impact on the work of writers such as Robertson Davies, Alice Munroe, and Michael Ondaatje. Here readers will delight in Atwood's stimulating discussion of stories and storytelling, myths and their recreations, fiction and fact, and the weirdness of nature. In particular, she looks at three legends of the Canadian North. She describes the mystery of the disastrous Franklin expedition in which 135 people disappeared into the uncharted North. She examines the "Grey Owl syndrome" of white writers who turn primitive. And she looks at the terrifying myth of the cannibalistic, ice-hearted Wendigo--the gruesome Canadia snow monster who can spot the ice in your own heart and turn you into a Wendigo. Atwood shows how these myths have fired the literary imagination of her native Canada and have deeply colored essential components of its literature. And in a moving, final chapter, she discusses how a new generation of Canadian women writers have adapted the imagery of the North to explore contemporary themes of gender, the family, and sexuality. Written with the delightful style and narrative grace which will be immediately familiar to all of Atwood's fans, this superbly crafted and compelling portrait of the mysterious North is at once a fascinating insight into the Canadian imagination, and an exciting new work from an outstanding literary presence.

Description

Strange Things explores a part of the imaginative landscape of one of the most esteemed and popular of contemporary writers, Margaret Atwood. Atwood's witty and informative book focuses on the imaginative mystique of the wilderness of the Canadian North. She discusses the 'Grey Owl Syndrome' of white writers going native; the folklore arising from the mysterious - and disastrousFranklin expedition of the nineteenth century; the myth of the dreaded snow monster, the Wendigo; the relations between nature writing and new forms of Gothic; and how a fresh generation of women writers in Canada have adapted the imagery of the Canadian North for the exploration of contemporary themes of gender, the family, and sexuality. Writers discussed include Robert Service, Robertson Davies, Alice Munro, E. J. Pratt, Marian Engel, Margaret Laurence, and Gwendolyn MacEwan.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature (Clarendon Lectures in English Literature)Oxford University Press, USA1996-01-18
• Strange thingsClarendon Press1995-01-01
• Strange thingsClarendon Press1995-01-01
• Strange thingsVirago Press2004-01-01
• Strange ThingsPaperbackVirago Press Ltd2004-03-04
• Strange ThingsLittle, Brown Book Group Limited2009-01-01