would expect such aprestigious publisher by the inclusion of more nineteenth cen- as Oxford to provide more efficient proof- tury women poets, and Sullivan acknowl- reading, especially in a book which is edges that her selection of newer poets has otherwise very handsomely designed). been limited by constraints of space. By One good reason for limiting the se- and large, however, Poetry by Canadian lection of early writing is the need to Women achieves the editor's aim "to provide space for the numerous women demonstrate the full range of writing by writers who have succeeded the Victorian Canadian women." lady poets. Sullivan's anthology, of course, includes the women whose work has found a secure place in the Canadian poetic CELEBRATING CANADIAN canon, but it also presents the work of less WOMEN: Prose and Poetry well known writers who are usually ex- By and About Women cluded from anthologies of Canadian poetry. Sullivan makes a case for the inclusion of Louise Morey Bowman in Greta Hoffmann Nemiroff, ed. : the history of modernism in Canadian Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1989 poetry. She presents poems by writers such as Lucy Maud Montgomery, Martha MARGARET ATWOOD: Ostenso and , who are Visions and Forms better known for their prose fiction. The anthology includes a generous selection Kathryn Van Spanckeren and Jan dence - constitute a ready-made peda- of contemporary work and acknowledges Garden Castro, eds. Carbondale: gogical outline that will be extremely the cultural diversity of Canada by includ- Southern Illinois University Press, 1988 easy to use in course planning within the ing poetry by, for instance, three writers general rubric of Women's Studies, though of Caribbean origin and one Native Salis- Clara Thomas the price ($35.00) certainly gives one han poet pause. And though the thematic structure The inclusiveness of Poetry by Cana- In Anne Cameron's "The World is Full of threatens at times to become overpower- dian Women is its greatest strength. The Magic" the final work of fiction in Cele- ingly inward-turning and narcissistic, the anthology traces not only, as Sullivan brating Canadian Women,Klopinum, the overall skill displayed in the writing of suggests, "the evolution in the concerns story teller, tells the listening girl: "Tell these pieces mumphs - this collection is of women poets," but also the formal you what..I'11 give the stories to you. much, much more than a celebration evolution of Canadian poetry from the You want it done, you do it." Greta simply of the Sturm und Drang of wom- Victorian romanticism of an Isabella Nemiroffs collection is a part of her anhood. Valancy Crawford to the high modernism answer to what she felt was a similar One of the tempting exercises this an- of a P.K. Page to the feminist postmoder- challenge [the other part of her answer thology suggests is acomparativereading nism of a Daphne Marlatt. Another aspect was Women and Men: Interdisciplinary of the works of the well-known writers of the collection's inclusiveness is its Readings on Gender (Fitzhenry and with those of the lesser-known. The re- treatment of poets who are well estab- Whiteside, 1987)l. The planning of this sults are flattering to the latter group, lished in the Canadian canon. Often such massive project began in 1984. Nemiroff whose techniques of writing are of very writers are represented in anthologies by describes her original design - to repre- high quality. Where the difference lies, a few well-known "classics," usually not sent a cross-section of Canadian woman perhaps, and I say this with hesitation, as recent works. Sullivan includes such writers from every geographical, social one reader's tentative opinion only, is in canonized poems - 's and economic sector of Canada. That she the quality of imaginative finish that the "Snow," for instance, and Margaret could not, she says, is because of "re- work of our much-published writers dis- Atwood's "Death of a Young Son by straints of length and consequent cost" plays. Some, by no means all, but some of Drowningw-but she also includes selec- Even without these restraints, I suspect, the other works, both of poetry and prose, tions of the writers' more recent poetry. submissions by or dealing with the poor, strike me as experience unmediated, or This is most striking in her selection of native persons, francophones or recent only partially mediated, by the imagina- poems by Anne Marriott, who is best immigrants were extremely scarce on the tive process. Raw experience sounds known for her documentation of the dust- ground. crude, but that is what I mean. bowl condition of the prairies during the Her final decision, "to organize the Reservations aside, however, the posi- Great Depression. The much-anthologmd book thematically around women's ex- tive values of this collection far outweigh "Prairie Graveyard" (1940) is here, but it periences" has many strengths. The the- its negatives. Much of the poetry seems to is augmented by several poems dating matic divisions - Growing Up Female, me to be exquisitely written, the prose from the 1970s and 1980s. Bodymnd, Romantic Love, Mothers, wholly effective to its chosen themes and No anthology is ever entirely satisfac- Families, Work, Women and Men, the showcasing of the lesser known among tory. I have suggested that this collection's Women and Women, Women Alone1 the better known writers complimentary historical purpose might be better served Women Aging, and Power and Transcen- toboth. GretaNemiroff is to be acknowl-

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESLES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME edged as a fine anthologist - and antholo- novels from The Edible Woman to The full of references to novels, short stories, gizing is a creative craft that scarcely ever Handmaid's Tale :though one might think and movement documents, with a smat- gets the recognition it deserves. I hope that enough had long since been said tering of feminist literary theory, some of that neither Fitzhenry and Whiteside's about the early works, particularly about which is translated from the French (Luce price nor their decision to classify it as Surfacing, there is nothing tired about Irigaray and Julia Kristeva). Palmer makes text rather than trade inhibit its wide dis- their treatments, and I know that it is it quite clear that her book rests on an persal and use in classrooms and for per- unreasonable to mourn the necessary time- attempt to corre1ate"works of fiction with sonal enjoyment. lag that means the omission of work on feminist literary theory," and she hopes Margaret Atwood: Visions and Fonns Cat'sEye. For me, the three on the poehy, that her study draws "attention to the is distinguished by several unique inclu- by David Buchbinder, Judith McCombs variety of women's fiction today." In sions: an autobiographical Foreword by and Kathleen Vogt, are especially valu- accomplishingthe former,Palmeris most Margaret Atwood, a Margaret Atwood able, providing insights into work that, animated when she does one of two things: chronology; a final "Works Cited" sec- compared to the novels, has suffered rela- she locates fiction which reveals a radical tion thatprovides agood working Atwood tive neglect. Personal preferences aside, feminist political theme, such as woman- bibliography; a lengthy interview, done the essays in toto establish a very high identification, the norms of a feminist in 1983, by Jan Garden Castro at Wash- standard of critical commentary. If at this community, lesbian relations, and mother- ington University, St. Louis; "Conversa- time I were advizing students about pur- daughter relations; or, she illustrates that tion," an exchange between Atwood and chasing Atwood criticism, this would (once again) it is an academic feminist students at the University of Tampa in certainly be the book I'd suggest. It is, I lurking behind that socialist feminist or 1987; and, most intriguing of all, an eight believe, by a long way, thebest we've had psychoanalytic [feminist] approach to a page series of full-colour reproductions so far. motif in the fiction. of Atwood's own water-colours with On the one hand Palmer denigrates the accompanying commentary by Sharon omission of radical feminist approaches Wilson. These features, together with an CONTEMPORARY in literary criticism, yet also finds that unusually superior design format, featur- WOMEN'S FICTION: many of the themes explored by women ing, for instance, a striking title page Narrative Practice and in the last two decades "are, as we have complete with a beguiling, sculpturesque seen, radical feminist in tenor." Palmer portrait of the author, make this an espe- Feminist Theory looks askance at what she calls "anti-real- cially desirable book. ist" fiction because she has determined To collectors and feminists, the brief Paulina Palmer. Jackson and London: that pre-oedipal and semiotic themes are initial note by Sandra M. Gilbert, "Ad University Press of Mississippi, 1989 generally the habit of writers concerned Ferninam: Women and Literature," will with the concept of "the fractured self." be a feature of added attraction, situating Marlene Kadar One exception to this trend is Margaret this book, as it does, within a feminist Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, a book series. Contemporary Women's Fiction: Nar- which succeeds, Palmer says, in combin- rative Practice and Feminist Theory is ing the psychoanalytic with the political. Reason tells us, after all, that if, tran- primarily an investigation of the relation scending prejudice and special plead- between contemporary women's fiction ing, we speak to, and focus on, the (Anglo-American novels) and feminist woman as well as the man - ifwe think theory,political and literary. Apart from a ad feminam as well as ad hominem -we theoretical Introduction and a Conclu- will have a better chance of under- sion, the book is divided into seven politi- standing what constitutes the human. cal themes which the author, Paulina Palmer, identifies within her selections of Kathryn Van Spanckeren's editorial fiction. Palmer uses British, American introduction is a valuable overview of the and to reveal what she entire volume, stressing particularly considers the major precepts of the Atwood's feminism and the political and women's movement, and she is particu- didactic strains in both her writings and larly considerate of the radical feminist her in-person commentaries. Perhaps the position, which she defines -along with role of teacher and mentor is expected of other feminist positions - in a useful her when she meets student audiences in Select Glossary at the back of the book. the States: at any rate to this Canadian Palmer herself is a British feminist who reader her strictures on political and per- teachers in the Department of English at sonal responsibility are right on target, the University of Warwick, but, as she though I should think they'd be far less points out, she is not just an academic; she appreciated here than they obviously are is active in the radical feminist move- there. ment. Palmer is also an avid reader. Thus The essays themselves cover Atwood's Contemporary Women'sFiction is chock

VOLUME 11, NUMBER 3