Canadian Multiculturalism in Margaret Atwood’s Short Fiction

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2017 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik – Literatur, Note: 1,3, Universität Konstanz (Literaturwissenschaft), Veranstaltung: American Literature and Culture, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In the following term paper, I will address aspects of Multiculturalism in Margaret Atwoods Short Fiction. First, I will give a brief overview of the historical development as well as the political measures that were taken on Canadas way from a bilingual to a multicultural nation. Secondly, I will analyze two of Atwoods Short Stories, namely The man from Mars and Dancing Girls which were both published in the Short Story Collection Dancing Girls and Other Stories from 1982. I chose these particular Short Stories because they were written at earlier stages of the development of Multiculturalism, and also because they show two very different approaches on how to deal with intercultural contact on a day-to-day basis. During the second part of this term paper, I will give an analysis of the plot and the characters, and grasp the way Atwood portrays Multiculturalism in both Short Stories, respectively. Finally, I will summarize my findings and give a brief recapitulation.