Just Popular Entertainment or Longing for a Posthuman Eden? : The Apocalypse in Margaret Atwoods MaddAddam Trilogy

Abstract

In the context of the ecological crisis, tales of the apocalypse have become a regular feature of the contemporary cultural imaginary, be it in popular feature films, non-fictional texts, or dystopian novels. Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy (2004 [2003], 2010 [2009], 2014 [2013]) investigates this curious form of entertainment both by employing the template of the apocalypse itself and by reflecting on its cause and effect at the same time. The novels reveal how worlds and their respective compasses of good and evil are constructed through storytelling and that the apocalypse is also a story which functions either as a moral structuring device or as an anaesthetic for the estranged subjects of late capitalism. Assuming a meta-perspective,the MaddAddam Trilogy engenders ethical reflections on possible futures, incorporating recent philosophical strands like transhumanism and posthumanism.

Keywords

• (post-) apocalyptic fiction
• margaret atwood’s maddaddam trilogy
• y
• narrative worldmaking
• ethics
• posthumanism
• ecology