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insights provided by feminist theory, the aim of this paper is to examine Atwood’s narrative of her
life as a woman and writer in Negotiating with the Dead.
Widely regarded as one of Canada’s best writers, Atwood has gained considerable success and
acclaim as a novelist, poet and environmental activist. Throughout her prolific career, she has
practiced writing not simply as a profession but also as a vocation. Margaret Atwood lists ten rules on
writing:
Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help
you a bit; but essentially you are on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it,
So don’t whine. 9
It is important to observe that Atwood views writing as a complex activity with several sides to it.
It requires toil and despite the effort a writer may put in to her work she still runs the risk of failure
and financial hardship. It is at the same time a lonely activity; the writer is ultimately left to her own
devices and is on her own when writing.Negotiating with the Dead emerged from a series of lectures
Atwood was asked to deliver at the University of Cambridge. In Empson lectures, she remarks that
“Writing itself was always bad enough, but writing about writing is surely worse, in the futility of
development.” 10 Despite this disclaimer, the book is filled with many perceptive observations about
writing and the role of the writer.
In the introduction of Negotiating With the Dead Margaret Atwood mentions that usually the
readers ask writers three questions. “Who are you? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?” 11
She records that there may be endless reasons why people write: to record the world as she sees it,
to please oneself because to create is human and to create is Godlike. A writer might also write to
search for and come to an understanding of the reader and herself, to make a name that would
survive after death, to defend a minority group,etc. Different writers may have different reasons for
writing. On the other hand, reasons why a person is drawn to write may also change over time.
Atwood helself asked other writers what it felt like to write. Many answered saying it was like
being in a dark room or wading through deep water. The author summarizes:
perhaps possibly then writing has to do with darkness and a desire or perhaps a
compulsion to enter it, and with luck, to illuminate it, and to bring something backout to
light. This book is about that kind of darkness or and about that kind of desire. 12
In this sense, Atwood articulates an idea of writing as a venture into the darkness, the unknown.
Behind this venture, motivating and triggering it is a desire to bring light into darkness, to make
known the unknown. From this perspective, writing is a heroic and noble activity that is intimately
related to and supportive of (wo)man’s search for meaning.
While she records her feelings about becoming a writer, Atwood also records her feelings and
reactions to World War II. Growing up at a time of global warfare undoubtedly had significant impact
on the formation of her worldview and character. Atwood also states that “all writers are doubles
because they live with two people; their everyday selves and their writer selves.” 13 In a way, then,
the writer carries within herself a split personality.
In her essay “The Other Side of Atwood”, Lara Braza observes that:
Rather than making her self indulgentor excessively personal expose of how she has
survived in the field, she deals with the most significant question of what it is for a writer
to write. Her voice and personal ideas are stated as the point of view through which she
sees the world, and she acknowledges that, so that we can understand the high level of
subjectivity in the discourse. 14
As Braza suggests, Atwood does not employ a narrative voice that highlights the trials and
tribulations of her life as a writer. Rather than making use of drama and/or sensation, Atwood opts