Surfacing (novel)
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''Surfacing'' is a novel by
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
author Margaret Atwood. Published by
McClelland and Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. History It was found ...
in
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
, it was her second novel. ''Surfacing'' has been described by commentators as a companion novel to Atwood's collection of poems, ''
Power Politics Power politics is a theory in international relations which contends that distributions of power and national interests, or changes to those distributions, are fundamental causes of war and of system stability. The concept of power politics pro ...
'', which was written the previous year and deals with complementary issues. The novel, grappling with notions of national and gendered identity, anticipated rising concerns about conservation and preservation and the emergence of Canadian nationalism. It was adapted into a movie in 1981.


Plot introduction

The book tells the story of a woman who returns to her hometown in Canada to find her missing father. Accompanied by her lover, Joe, and a married couple, Anna and David, the unnamed protagonist meets her past in her childhood house, recalling events and feelings, while trying to find clues to her father's mysterious disappearance. Little by little, the past overtakes her and drives her into the realm of wildness and madness.


Themes


Separation

Separation is a major theme of ''Surfacing''. This is established in the first chapter, when the narrator is shown to be politically dispossessed as an English-speaker in
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, at a time in which Quebec was aspiring to become an independent French-speaking nation. The narrator also feels disconnected from the people around her, equating human interaction with that of animals. For example, while overhearing David and Anna have sex, the narrator thinks "of an animal at the moment the trap closes". The mouthpiece for feelings of nationalism is extremist David, who claims Canada would be better without the "fascist pig Yanks" and suggests they be driven from the country by attack beavers.


Feminism

Feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, a theme in many of Atwood's novels, is explored through the perspective of the female narrative, exposing the ways women are marginalized in their professional and private lives.


Allusions to other works

''Surfacing'' echoes the structure of Jack Kerouac's '' On the Road'', as the narrator travels by car back to her childhood home. The novel has also been compared to Sylvia Plath's '' The Bell Jar''. Atwood's unnamed narrator and Plath's Esther Greenwood are both driven to psychological breakdowns due to their unwillingness to adhere to the social expectations imposed on women.


Reception and reviews

In her essay ''Margaret Atwood: Beyond Victimhood'',
Marge Piercy Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American progressive activist and writer. Her work includes '' Woman on the Edge of Time''; '' He, She and It'', which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and ''Gone to Soldiers'', a New York Times Best ...
was skeptical of the narrator's abrupt declaration of love for Joe at the end of the novel, saying it did not stop the narrator from being a victim: by choosing a man who opts to be a loser, "how does ''she'' stop being a loser?"Howells, Coral Ann. ''The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood (Cambridge Companions to Literature)'' : 46-50


References

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External links


Diving into Atwood's ''Surfacing''
by Ingrid Norton
Margaret Atwood
at the Literary Encyclopedia

an article by Jill Dawson
On: Margaret Atwood's 'Surfacing'
by Richard Cheadle

at "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature" {{DEFAULTSORT:Surfacing (Novel) 1972 Canadian novels Novels by Margaret Atwood New Canadian Library Feminist novels Novels set in Quebec Fiction with unreliable narrators Canadian novels adapted into films Novels about nationalism McClelland & Stewart books