Margaret Atwood's Power
Mirrors, Reflections and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry
by Shannon Hengen

In this incisive feminist analysis, Hengen provides a psychoanalytic overview examining Atwood's treatment of women and power. Who has power? Who abuses it? By looking at Atwood's characters, Hengen raises some important issues about her writing. In her novels and poems Atwood's protagonists explore the lives of their mothers and grandmothers in order to reflect on the lives and struggles we confront today. Using the metaphor of narcissism — both progressive and regressive — and the mirror imagery that threads through Atwood's work, Hengen gives a feminist reading to the work of this important Canadian author. Hengen argues that the connections women are able to make between their own lives today and the lives portrayed by Atwood account in part for the writer's wide popularity. An important contribution, Margaret Atwood's Power is a thought-provoking evaluation which provides new insights into Margaret Atwood's work and popularity.