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"Odd Apocalyptic Panics"| Chthonic Storytelling in Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam

<p> I argue that Margaret Atwood&rsquo;s work in <i>MaddAddam</i> is about survival; it is about moving beyond preconceived, thoughtless ideology of any form with creative kinship. Cooperation and engagement cannot be planned in advance, and must take the form of something more than pre-established ideology. I will discuss <i>MaddAddam</i> in light of Donna Haraway&rsquo;s recent work in which she argues that multispecies acknowledgement and collaboration are essential if humans are to survive and thrive in the coming centuries. By bringing the two texts into dialogue, one sees that Atwood&rsquo;s novel constitutes the kind of story deemed necessary by Haraway for making kin in the Chthulucene. Various scenes depicting cooperation and interdependence among humans and other animals offer chthonic models of kinship; these relationships, as opposed to ideological and anthropocentric isolation, will serve as the means of surviving and thriving within an ongoing apocalypse.</p><p>

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10844499
Date13 October 2018
CreatorsNugent, Ashley Frances
PublisherFlorida Atlantic University
Source SetsProQuest.com
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis

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