Shannon E. Hengen, Ph.D., is a literary critic and professor of Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and women's literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 at Laurentian University

Laurentian University

Laurentian University , was incorporated on March 28, 1960, is a mid-sized bilingual university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada....

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 where she formerly served as chairperson for the Department of English. Her specialities include drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

tic comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

, aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

 theatre, contemporary feminist

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 writing, and Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

. The theory that most informs her work involves performance, carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

, and gender

Gender

Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

. The aspect of literary style that most concerns her is voice, and the theme that most intrigues her at present is marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

. She has written or edited numerous books.

In 2007, Laurentian University's Presidential Advisory Committee on the Status of Women honoured her during its annual awards ceremony to celebrate International Women's Day

International Women's Day

International Women's Day , originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and...

, for her championing of women's literature.

Representative publications

• Comedy's Edge. Vol. 1 Toronto: Playwrights Union of Canada, 1999. 77 pp.
• Comedy's Edge. Vol. 2 Toronto: Playwrights Union of Canada, 1999. 77 pp.
• "Margaret Atwood's Power: Mirrors, Reflections, and Images" in Select Fiction and Poetry. Toronto: Second Story, 1993.

Books edited

• Friedman, T.; Hengen, Shannon and Wilson, Sharon (eds); Approaches to Teaching Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Other Works. New York: Modern Language Association, 1996.
• Hengen, Shannon (Ed.); Performing Gender and Comedy: Theories, Texts, and Contexts. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, 1998. 279 pp.

Chapters in academic books

• "Strange Visions: Atwood’s Interlunar and Technopoetics." Margaret Atwood’s Textual Assassinations: Recent Poetry and Fiction. Ed. Sharon Rose Wilson. Columbus: The Ohio State UP, 2003. 42-53.
• "Margaret Atwood's Nature." the Handmaid's Tale, Roman protéen. Ed. Jean- Michel Lacroix, Jacques Leclaire, et jack Warwick. Publications de l'Université de Rouen, France, 1999. 77-84.
• "Dialogic Time and The Handmaid's Tale." The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood. Ed. Marta Dvorak. Paris: Ellipses, 1998 144-8.
• "Unofficial Lives: Performance of Self and Others in Women's Comic Monologues." La Création biographique/Biographical Creation. Ed. Marta Dvorak. Rennes, France: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1997. 59-65.
• "Zenia's Foreignness." Various Atwoods: Essays on the Later Poems, Short Fiction, and Novels. Ed. Lorraine M. York. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 1995, 271-286.

Articles (in refereed journals)

• "The De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Method: Making Stories." Canadian Theatre Review 115 (Summer 2003): 35-8.
• "An Interview with Garry Hynes," Canadian Journal of Irish Studies 26.2 (Fall 2000)/27.1 (Spring 2001): 74-83.
• "First Tellers of Tales." Canadian Theatre Review 106 (Spring 2001): 35-8.
• "Towards a Feminist Comedy." Canadian Literature 146 (Autumn 1995): 97-109.
• "Theatre du Nouvel-Ontario and Francophone Culture in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada." The American Review of Canadian Studies 21.1 (1991): 55-69.
• "'Metaphysical Romance'" Atwood's PhD Thesis and The Handmaid's Tale." Science-Fiction Studies 18 (1991): 142-144.