Waubonsee Community College

Negotiating with the dead, a writer on writing, Margaret Atwood

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-207) and index

index present

non fiction

Negotiating with the dead

bibliography

45917223

Margaret Atwood

a writer on writing

What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain - or excuse! - their activities, looking at what costumes they have assumed, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the title: if a writer is to be seen as 'gifted', who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift? Margaret Atwood's wide reference to other writers is balanced by anecdotes from her own experiences, both in Canada and on the international scene. The lightness of her touch is underlined by a seriousness about the purpose and the pleasures of writing, and by a deep familiarity with the myths and traditions of Western literature

Introduction: Into the labyrinth -- Prologue -- Orientation: who do you think you are? (What is "a writer," and how did I become one?) -- Duplicity: the jekyll hand, the hyde hand, and the slippery double (Why there are always two) -- Dedication: The great god pen (Apollo vs. Mammon: at whose altar should the writer worship?) -- Temptation: Prospero, the Wizard of Oz, Mephisto & co. (Who waves the wand, pulls the strings, or signs the Devil's book?) -- Communion: nobody to nobody (the eternal triangle: the writer, the reader, and the book as go-between) -- Descent: Negotiating with the dead (Who makes the trip to the Underworld, and why?)