Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature

Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature is a survey of Canadian literature by Margaret Atwood, one of the best-known Canadian authors. It was first published by House of Anansi in 1972.

A work of literary criticism, as Atwood writes in her preface to the 2004 edition, Survival was an attempt to deal with her belief that in the early 1970s, Canadian literature was still looking for a grounding in a national identity that would be comparable to that of Great Britain or the United States. The thematic approach of the book and its intended non-academic audience corresponds with a focus on contemporary Canadian literature as a point of entry. Therefore, the book does not provide an extensive survey of the historical development of Canada's literature, but an introduction to what is Canadian about Canadian literature for readers as citizens of Canada. In Survival, literature emerges as central to the development of national identity, what she calls a sense of "here".

In 1996, the work was republished. In 2004, the work was reprinted again alongside an introduction by the author. In 2012, a third reprinting occurred in a large type edition.

To Atwood, the central image of Canadian literature, equivalent to the image of the island in British literature and the frontier in American literature, is the notion of survival and its central character the victim. Atwood claims that both English and French novels, short stories, plays and poems participate in creating this theme as the central distinguishing feature of the nation's literature.

The central image of the victim is not static; according to Atwood four "Victim Positions" are possible (and visible in Canadian literature). These positions are outlined below.

From the time it first appeared in 1972, Survival was generally well received by the popular press, but severely criticised by many Canadian literature scholars and academics as being simplistic, narrow in scope, unhistorical, biased, not supported by literary evidence, based on poorly-grounded assertions and distorting our views on Canadian writing. The first negative reviews of Survival were by Frank Davey, a poet, critic, and editor. Other critics include Joseph Pivato, Robin Mathews, George Woodcock, Paul Stuewe, Barry Cameron, and Michael Dixon. The criticisms of these authors indicate that Atwood's Survival now provides a disservice to Canadian literature.

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