Atwood Margaret. Negotiating with the Dead. A Writer on Writing

Essays. — Cambridge University Press, 2002. — 198 p. — ISBN: 978-1-84408-027-4.Negotiating with the Dead. A Writer on Writing is a non-fiction work by Canadian author Margaret Atwood.Atwood edited six lectures she gave at the 2000 Empson Lectures at the University of Cambridge into a non-fiction work on writing. In her introduction, she describes the work as being not about how to write or about her own writing, but rather the position a writer finds him or herself in. The book is organized into six chapters drawn from each of the six lectures. Each chapter of the book addresses one question regarding the writer’s position and craft. The book also includes a prologue and an introduction entitled Into the labyrinth in which she describes the process of creating this particular work.Atwood has also created other works of non-fiction from lecture series she has given. Strange Things. The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature, was based on a lecture series given at Oxford University.Introduction: Into the labyrinth.
Prologue.
Orientation: Who do you think you are?
What is "a writer", and how did I become one?
Duplicity: The jekyll hand, the hyde hand, and the slippery double.
Why there are always two.
Dedication: The Great God Pen.
Apollo vs. Mammon: at whose altar should the writer worship?
Temptation: Prospero, the Wizard of Oz, Mephisto Co.
Who waves the wand, pulls the strings, or signs the Devils book?
Communion: Nobody to Nobody.
The eternal triangle: the writer, the reader, and the book as go-between.
Descent: Negotiating with the dead.
Who makes the trip to the Underworld, and why?
Notes.