Margaret Atwood, The Door

Sue Sorensen (Canadian Mennonite University)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

After publishing nine major books of poetry in the first 25 years of her career, Margaret Atwood’s poetic output slowed dramatically, with just two new collections (aside from selected works) published since the 1980s:

Morning in the Burned House

(1995) and

The Door

(2007). Atwood’s large audience is now principally attentive to her fiction, so while her early books of poetry were thoroughly appraised, especially in Atwood’s home nation of Canada,

Morning in the Burned House

and

The Door

received less critical attention. These books, however, demonstrate an intriguing shift in emphasis. Her early “soundings of female consciousness were forensic and archetype-obsessed” (Starnino), and critics emphasized the young poet’s analysis of power, duality, and imperialism, often…

856 words

Citation: Sorensen, Sue. "The Door". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 September 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22992, accessed 26 November 2024.]

22992 The Door 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.