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 manifesto, and a collection of personal and
subversive remarks. Margaret Atwood begins by asking: "What have been
the central preoccupations of our poetry and fiction?" Her answer is
"survival and victims."
Atwood applies this thesis in twelve brilliant, witty, and impassioned
chapters; from Moodie to MacLennan to Blais, from Pratt to Purdy to
Gibson, she lights up familiar books in wholly new perspectives. This
new edition features a foreword by the author.