Literary Eco-Resistance: Feminist Sustainable Practices in Margaret Atwood and Ruth Ozeki

Abstract

In The Great Derangement (2016), Amitav Ghosh has argued that literature is currently facing a crisis of imagination, since fiction is unable to properly deal with climate change. This dissertation is going to assert that there is a beacon of hope. Literature has developed into two branches that adequately engage with climate change, ‘report’ fiction and speculative fiction. They are exemplified by the works of two female Canadian authors, Ruth Ozeki and Margaret Atwood. Ozeki’s My Year of Meats (1998) and All Over Creation (2003) fictionalize analyses on the use of hormones in cows breeding and genetically modified food. The Maddaddam trilogy by Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and Maddaddam (2013), narrates a future in which the human race is swept away by a disease, only to be replaced by a new form of ‘superhumans.’ The novels display various forms of eco-sustainability and resistance against hegemonic forms of capitalism. Taking a materialistic route, it will be argued that the food practices depicted by Atwood and Ozeki escape the idea that the realistic novel cannot engage with climate change events. All of the food practices are linked with environmental issues, such as pollution, bioengineered meats, and vegetarianism. Special attention will be paid to the role played by women in the novels, as their narratives are intertwined with forms of ecological food-related resistance.