This section contains 3,866 words (approx. 13 pages at 300 words per page) |
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SOURCE: “‘Bluebeard's Egg’: Not Entirely a ‘Grimm’ Tale,” in Margaret Atwood: Reflection and Reality, edited by Beatrice Mendez-Egle and James M. Haule, Pan American University, 1987, pp. 131–38.
In the following essay, Peterson evaluates the influence of legends and fairy tales on Atwood's short fiction.
In a 1977 interview, Margaret Atwood speculated that her childhood reading led to the emphasis on evolution and transformation evident in her adult fiction. As a child, Atwood said, she read legends, fairy tales, and religious stories, all involving “miraculous changes of shape” (Sandler 14). The influence of these tales on Atwood's fiction is a largely untouched area of scholarship. However, the publication of her collection of short stories, Bluebeard's Egg, which overtly uses fairy tales and legends to make a statement about modern life, calls for a further examination of this influence. The story that gives the collection its title is particularly fascinating because it is...
This section contains 3,866 words (approx. 13 pages at 300 words per page) |
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