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Margaret AtwoodA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Death by Landscape” is a short story by Margaret Atwood, initially published in her 1991 collection Wilderness Tips. Atwood, who was born in Ottawa in 1939, has become one of Canada’s most celebrated writers over the course of a career that has spanned nearly six decades. As “Death by Landscape” demonstrates, Atwood’s nationality is not simply incidental to her writing, which comprises everything from poetry to literary criticism; Canadian history and culture feature prominently in much of Atwood’s work, and she played a key role in the development of a school of writing that would come to be known as “Southern Ontario Gothic.” As its name suggests, this school uses images and ideas associated with Gothic literature, such as insanity or the taboo, to explore different aspects of Canadian experience. “Death by Landscape” falls firmly into this genre, bringing Gothic tropes like suicide and supernatural threats to bear on the question of what it means to be a white, middle-class woman in 20th-century Canada.
Atwood’s story also touches on another distinctive feature of Canadian literature: the idea of survival. Atwood herself argued that this was the defining characteristic of Canadian writing in her 1972 work of criticism, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature; in part because of Canada’s colonial history, and in part simply because of the harshness of its weather and terrain, Atwood argues that Canadian art and identity center on the struggle to stay alive.
By Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
Margaret Atwood
Cat's Eye
Cat's Eye
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Hag-Seed
Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold
Margaret Atwood
Happy Endings
Happy Endings
Margaret Atwood
Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
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Lady Oracle
Lady Oracle
Margaret Atwood
Life Before Man
Life Before Man
Margaret Atwood
MaddAddam
MaddAddam
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Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
Rape Fantasies
Rape Fantasies
Margaret Atwood
Siren Song
Siren Song
Margaret Atwood
Stone Mattress
Stone Mattress
Margaret Atwood
Surfacing
Surfacing
Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin
The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood
The Circle Game
The Circle Game
Margaret Atwood
The Edible Woman
The Edible Woman
Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
The Heart Goes Last
The Heart Goes Last
Margaret Atwood
The Landlady
The Landlady
Margaret Atwood