Hag-Seed: Textual Conversations with The Tempest

Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed is a wonderfully layered and highly accessible text that both remakes and comments on Shakespeare's The Tempest.

I love the this image. The book, situated literally "behind bars", giving hint as to its setting, and also mirroring the sea and its waves, which reimagines and collides with the story of The Tempest.


Once again, I draw the wonderful Luke Bartolo who has painstakingly produced an excellent resource for Year 12 students. His resource works as both a series of annotations and a study guide for students who are looking to draw connections between Hag-Seed and The Tempest.

Luke Bartolo's Hag-Seed guide


He states how to make use of the resource:

  • The first column covers quotes and examples from Hag-Seed. 
  • The second column identifies techniques used by Atwood in relation to the example, allowing for students to build metalanguage and/or analyse authorial purpose and effective construction of language.
  • The third column directs the reader to make comparisons or recognise the significance of the example in relation to the module. 

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    He has also included some questions for students outlined in bold; about a couple per page in the third column. Students should aim to work their way through this study guide's questions throughout the remainder of the school year.
     
     

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