The project maintains that Atwood’s trilogy presents the reader with a hypothetical future that looks towards and beyond the end of contemporary technological society in order to urge her reader to imagine, and actualize, alternatives to the scenarios that these texts depict. It explores the close relationship that exists between the near-future world of Atwood’s texts and the contemporary context from which she has drawn her subject matter, and argues that the trilogy demonstrates graphically the long-term consequences of capitalism, sustainability, and the doctrine of human exceptionalism, which this project, following Yuval Harari, defines as orthodox guiding narratives: fictions that humanity has created, and which structure our perception of reality and guide our behaviour. With reference to Atwood’s essays and critical writings, Darko Suvin’s Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, and Wolfgang Iser’s The Act of Reading, this project explores the value of reading speculative fiction and details how Atwood has constructed the fictional, yet plausible, possible future world of her trilogy by extrapolating our current scientific capabilities, environmental challenges, and political configurations to their logical conclusions. Detailing Atwood’s own specifications as to why these texts should be categorised as works of speculative fiction, the thesis examines how this literary genre, and Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy in particular, is uniquely capable of encouraging readers to interrogate critically the socio-economic, environmental, and ethical problems to which she, and the contemporary reader, bear witness in the present technological age. Science fiction - History and criticism SubjectĢ020 Date 2020 Type Thesis Type Masters Type MA Identifier Identifier vital:38467 Description This thesis is focussed on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy: Oryx and Crake (2003) The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013). A boxed set (three trade paperbacks) of the internationally celebrated speculative fiction trilogy from one of the most visionary authors of our time, Margaret Atwood. Speculative fiction - History and criticism Subject Title Chasing Eden: Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy and the value of reading in a technological age CreatorĪtwood, Margaret, 1939- MaddAddam trilogy Subject

Maddaddam trilogy by margaret atwood