Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature

This book collects the four lectures Margaret Atwood gave at Oxford University in 1991 on the subject of Canadian literature. Atwood took as her overarching theme the North and how it has been represented. She talks about the Franklin expedition and its continued hold on the Canadian imagination; Grey Owl and others who seek salvation in the wilderness; the legends of the Wendigo; and how women writers have tackled the subject of the North, given that when men write about it, they often portray it as a femme fatale luring men to their demise.

I found these lectures bracing and energizing in the best possible way. Atwood’s command of language and construction of her lectures is excellent, and I liked her use of quotes from poems and show more prose to enhance the subject matter. I also liked her introduction to the book, where she talked about how the lectures were received (the reactions to the Franklin lecture were amusing) and how she even took care to wear thematically appropriate earrings for each lecture. The lectures have added a bunch of books to my “bump these up the TBR pile” list, and I look forward to checking them out. And the themes are still relevant today, particularly in relation to discussions about representation of Indigenous culture in non-Indigenous literature.

This collection is recommended for anyone interested in Canadian literature, as well as for people who like Margaret Atwood. show less

This a series of lectures on Canadian Literature that Margaret Atwood gave in Oxford in the 1990's. One about the Franklin Expedition, a disastrous attempt to find the North-West Passage, and the personification of the Canadian Wastes. One about Grey Owl, a white man who pretended to be an Indian and wrote books about nature and ecology, so also talking more generally about going native and ecology. One about the Wendigo, a kind of monster, and the various incarnations that it takes. Also one about female Canadian writers and, possibly, why there are more famous female writers from Canada when generally major writers in other countries are men.

Even though this book is nearly twenty years old there is still a lot of interest to anyone show more with a liking of Canada and the stories that come from there. I found these lectures both witty and informative. show less

I enjoyed this very much. It is a collection of four lectures that Atwood gave which focus on "the imaginative mystique of the wilderness of the Canadian North" in literature. These lectures were informative and interesting and delivered with a touch of that Atwood deadpan humour. I also picked up a few great reading suggestions.

Such a lovely survey of Canadian literature in lectures long enough to show Atwood's sense of humor and thorough knowledge, short enough to be digested.

Includes interesting essay on the literary impact in Canada of Franklin's disastrous North-west passage expedition in the mid-nineteenth-century.

As funny, smart and compelling as her fiction.