This work has as goal shows a little about splendid complexities of human relationships and to motivate people to read the wondrous tale. Margaret Atwood maps the human motivation we scarcely know we have in a startlingly original voice, full of rare intensity and exceptional intelligence.

1. UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DO PIAUÍ - UESPI
CENTRO DE CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS E LETRAS – CCHL
CURSO: LICENCIATURA PLENA EM LETRAS INGLÊS
Disciplina: PROSA NA LITERATURA DE LÍNGUA INGLESA
Dancing Girls
Margaret Atwood
Leandro da Conceição

2. Dancing Girls is a collection of short stories by Canadian author
Margaret Atwood, originally published in 1977 by McClelland &
Stewart, Toronto. It was the winner of the St. Lawrence Award for
Fiction and the award of The Periodical Distributors of Canada for
Short Fiction.
The collection’s fourteen stories feature ordinary people, including
a farmer, a birdwatcher, an author, ex-wives, a mother and a travel
agent, and their inevitably biased perceptions of the world.

3. It testifies to Margaret Atwood's startlingly original voice, full of a
rare intensity and exceptional intelligence. With brilliant flashes of
fantasy, humor, and unexpected violence, the stories reveal the
complexities of human relationships and bring to life characters who
touch us deeply, evoking terror and laughter, compassion and
recognition - and dramatically demonstrate why Margaret Atwood is
one of the most important writers in English today.

4. Author
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern
Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree
from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's
degree from Radcliffe College.
MARGARET ATWOOD, whose work has been published in over thirty-five
countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and
critical essays.
SOME MEMORABLE WORKS:
The edible woman (1970)
The Handmaid’s Tale (1983)
The Robber Bridge (1994)
Alias Grace (1996)
The Blind Assassin (which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000)

5. Why so captivating?

Margaret Atwood maps the human motivation we scarcely know
we have.

Dancing Girls is Margaret Atwood’s highly praised first collection
of short fiction. In it she explores the dark intricacies of the
mind, the complexities of human relationships, and the clashes
between cultures. In the stories, the mundane and the bizarre
intersect in unexpected ways: ex-wives indulge in an odd feast
at a psychiatrist’s funeral; a young student is pursued by an
obsessed immigrant; an old woman stores up supplies against an
impending cataclysm. The fourteen stories range in setting from
Canada to England, from Mexico to the United States, and
portray characters who touch us and arouse in us compassion
and understanding. In this astonishing collection, Margaret
Atwood maps human motivation we scarcely know we have.

6. The Tale

Dancing Girls is divided into 14 short
stories.

A few of ones have endings that let
anyone stumped.

# Atwood's short stories are
shocking, vibrant glances at some
of her most interesting people. The
stories in this collection were
published in many journals, from
the prestigious *Harper's* to the
rarified journals like *Fiddlehead*
and *The Malahat Review.*
Stories in *Dancing Girls*:

The War in the Bathroom

The Man from Mars

Polarities

Under Glass

The Grave of the Famous Poet

Rape Fantasies

Hair Jewellery

When It Happens

A Travel Piece

The Resplendent Quetzal

Training

Lives of the Poets

Dancing Girls

Giving Birth

7. Interesting things*
Curiosities

It doesn’t have defined specific characters. It comprises all kinds of
characters, mainly women.

This is an entertaining collection where Atwood demonstrates that she is
down to earth and is sufficiently skilled and talented to make the mundane
seem very interesting without resorting to any fancy writing techniques. The
stories are set in modern urban settings. There is no simple pattern to the
tales, and some end abruptly.

They have a variety of interesting characters, but the women seem more
interesting than the men.

8. 
Atwood's Dancing Girls has a common theme of obsession with a hint of crazy
that touches almost every story in the collection.

In the The War in the Bathroom was told over the course of a week, where a
woman feels like her living space is being invaded daily by an elderly man
whose bathroom habits can be clearly heard from her room.

Then in The Man from Mars, a strange little foreign man begins to stalk
Christine. . .
Rape Fantasies has a dark name, but is a witty story about one woman's
ridiculous rape fantasies that somehow turn into love.

9. Quotes

“We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t
good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.”
― Margaret Atwood, Dancing Girls

“Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the
human head, but that's wrong. They know less, that's why they write.
Trying to find out what everyone else takes for granted.”
― Margaret Atwood, Dancing Girls

10. Closing remarks – Show over
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer
Graeme Gibson.
If you enjoy Margaret Atwood or enjoy reading short
stories, these are some great ones to get into!

11. The End
By Leandro da Conceição