Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman

Ellen McWilliams (University of Exeter)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1969

Places

Canada (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Margaret Atwood's first published novel The Edible Woman (1969) can be read as an early expression of the author's interest in writing women's lives. The protagonist of the novel, Marian MacAlpin, a recent university graduate, works for a market research company and is soon to be engaged to her boyfriend. Once the engagement is announced, Marian begins to lose her appetite and develops a growing aversion to food that leaves her frustrated and hungry. The fact that Marian loses her appetite for food, and it might be added life as the future Mrs Peter Wollander, invites a fruitful feminist reading of the novel. However, whilst the novel can be read as a feminist text, Atwood's introduction to the 1979 …

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1261 words

Citation: McWilliams, Ellen. "The Edible Woman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 October 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=990, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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