Literature’s Incisive Icon, Margaret Atwood
Image credit: Liam Sharp
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Margaret Atwood spent much of her childhood in the bush of North Quebec, often in complete isolation. This formative experience, during which she spent a lot of time backpacking, exploring, and reading vicariously with her mother, brother and father – a forest entomologist – appears to have given Atwood the sense of independence, human nature, and intellect that have come to define her work.
As a writer, Atwood is prolific, widely acclaimed, and has turned her pen to almost every literary genre; as a person, she is widely travelled, articulate, and has a quick, sardonic wit. Just a small glimpse into some of the responses given by Atwood in press interviews, which are few and far between given the extent of her writing and her momentous influence, give an insight into her sharpness and disposition. Uninhibited by genre or a specific writing routine, Atwood’s career has included winning the Booker Prize for Fiction twice for Blind Assassin and The Testaments, and writing around sixty books, including novels, poetry, short-story collections, works of criticism, essays, children’s books – many of which have been widely translated and adapted for screen and stage.
However, Atwood is perhaps best known for the renowned The Handmaid’s Tale, which, alongside other dystopian novels, have earned her a place among the most eminent science fiction writers. What differentiates Atwood from this list is her ability to skilfully dissect contemporary life and sexual politics with precision and accuracy, in novels that are both imminently readable and entirely based on truth and evidenced predictions. Notably, every heinous act discussed in The Handmaid’s Tale was taken from either history or published literature – from stories of abortion and contraception being outlawed in Romania and attempts to withhold federal funding from clinics that provide abortion services in America, to representations of state-sanctioned rape extrapolated from the Bible.
Since The Handmaid’s Tale was published, much has been said about its relevance to the current state of the world – so much so that, the day after Trump’s inauguration, a protester held a sign saying, ‘Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again’. This is both the power and terror of Atwood’s writing – avoiding moralism and judgement, her work cuts through to the heart of society’s deepest horrors and hopes.
