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Once Upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Margaret Atwood's Writings
Author(s): Sarah A. Appleton (Author, Editor)
- Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
- Publication Date: 1 Nov. 2008
- Edition: New edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 190 pages
- ISBN-10: 184718684X
- ISBN-13: 9781847186843
Book Description
While it is often acknowledged that Margaret Atwood’s novels are rife with allusions from the oral tradition of myth, legends, fables, and fairy tales, the implications of her liberal usage bear study. The essays in this volume have been written by some of the most influential Margaret Atwood scholars internationally, each exploring Atwood’s use of primal, indeed archetypal, narratives to illuminate her fiction and poetry. These essays interact with all types of such narratives, from fairy tales and legends, to Greek, Roman, Biblical, and pagan mythologies, to contemporary processes of myth and tale creation. And, as the works in this collection demonstrate, Atwood’s use of myths and fairy tales allows for an abundance of old, yet fresh material for contemporary readers. By reconciling, yet by also revisioning, the archetypal motifs, characters, and narratives, Atwood’s writings present a familiar, yet unique, reading experience.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘Margaret Atwood is on record as saying that Grimm’s Fairy Tales influenced her profoundly, and much scholarly work has already been done on this important aspect of her writing. However, in Once upon a Time, Sarah Appleton has gathered together nine fascinating new essays on Atwood’s use of myth and fairy tales by specialists from Canada, England, Israel, and the United States. This collection offers new perspectives on the function of fairy tale, myth, and legend in Atwood’s earlier work and brings this discussion up-to-date through analyses of recent novels, like The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake, and the staging of The Penelopiad. And if readers are curious about the fate of princes and male heroes in Atwood’s hands, then there is an essay here that will get you thinking about them. Every student of Atwood, or of contemporary culture more broadly, will want to read Once upon a Time.’―Sherrill Grace, F.R.S.C., Professor of English and Distinguished University Scholar, The University of British Columbia
About the Author
SARAH A. APPLETON has taught seminars on Margaret Atwood and other women writers. She is the author of The Bitch Is Back: Wicked Women in Literature (SIU, 2000) and, with Mica Howe, co-editor of He Said, She Says: An RSVP to the Male Text (Farleigh-Dickinson, 2000). Professor Appleton has also published essays on Margaret Atwood and many others in such journals as Margaret Atwood Studies and African-American Review. She is currently writing one book on the fates of male and female narcissists in literature and editing another collection of essays. She is teaching in the English program at Old Dominion University.
