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"Here's a man and woman sitting on a rock": Joni Mitchell, Margaret Atwood, and irritable feminism

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posted on 2023-06-09, 16:42 authored by Pam ThurschwellPam Thurschwell
This chapter charts multiple connections between Joni Mitchell and Margaret Atwood, as brilliant, angry, self-conscious, Canadian women artists of a similar generation. It explores the crossovers between Mitchell’s songs (focusing on “Come in from the Cold,” “Song for Sharon,” and “Refuge of the Roads”) and Atwood’s writings (focusing on the quasi-autobiographical novel, Cat’s Eye) to uncover a shared sensibility as well as a shared history and sense of place. Mitchell’s and Atwood’s works speak to each other through a similar affective landscape--simultaneously tough, vulnerable, and imbued with a desire for freedom that merges with a deep sense of loneliness. A critique of patriarchy, via a feminism that I want to call irritable, is a central plank of both authors’ techniques and sensibilities.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Publisher

Bloomsbury Academic

Page range

167-183

Pages

248.0

Book title

Joni Mitchell: new critical readings

Place of publication

New York, USA

ISBN

9781501332098

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • No

Editors

Ruth Charnock

Legacy Posted Date

2019-02-01

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-07-24

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-02-01

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