Nonhuman Animals in Margaret Atwood's Fictional Worlds

From the very origins of human civilization, nonhuman animals have been used as endless literary tools, in some cases as part of rhetorical figures, in others as substitutes of humans, or even as the object of discussion. Despite their prominence, what most narratives seem to lack is the voice of the actual nonhuman animals, oftentimes forgetting to give them the possibility of being individuals with their own biological and emotional interests and needs. This tendency has slightly changed amongst writers in the last decades due to the awareness raised by the critical field of Animal Studies and its resistance to see nonhuman animals as a collectivity that is deprived of language, reason, soul, or individuality. A writer who has acknowledged the potential that nonhuman animals have and frequently incorporates them in her oeuvre is the Canadian author, Margaret Atwood. She offers an engaging insight into how nonhuman animals are perceived within her Canadian context and has even challenged the common roles assigned to them in her extensive literary career. The ecological revindications and feminist elements that are integrated in her works make Atwood an author of considerable interest to study from new perspectives. Thus, this dissertation borrows from the most recent scholarship on (Critical) Animal Studies and Ecofeminism to address the analysis of how nonhuman animals are represented in Atwood’s novels and graphic novels. To do so, the corpus encompasses the seventeen novels that have been published by Margaret Atwood, ranging from the late sixties until the most recent one in 2019, and her two graphic novels. Additionally, I examine whether nonhuman animals are presented as sentient beings and if Atwood incorporates the theories from animal rights movements that surfaced in the seventies and have evolved into the discipline of ethics to the present day. Moreover, by placing the focus on the transversal role that nonhuman animals have within the novels published throughout seven decades, I analyze if an evolution can be appreciated in their treatment. Lastly, I investigate how she frames the animal question within the perspectives of gender and feminism given the importance that these themes have in Atwood’s literary works. Consequently, the analysis of Atwood’s novels and graphic novels is classified into six different categories regarding the representation of nonhuman animals. I begin by studying the construction of the Canadian identity of Atwood’s characters through the wildlife that surrounds them and their identification with nonhuman animals. Then, I analyze how nonhuman animals are framed into cultural beliefs and folklore, with a special focus on religion. Subsequently, I apply Carol J. Adam’s theory of the absent referent to examine the connections between the exploitation and silencing of women and nonhuman animals. Next, I explore the dominance and commodification in nonhuman animals’ death, which includes their employment in artistic creations or within the scientific community. Following this, I focus on how nonhuman animals are represented in Atwood’s dystopian narratives by incorporating concepts such as slow violence, rewilding, ustopia and zoopolitical citizens. Lastly, I draw on Josephine Donovan’s concept of aesthetics of care to examine the interspecies entanglements found between human and nonhuman animals.

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