On the Food Writing and Community Imagination in the MaddAddam Trilogy

作者：Sheldon X. Lu · 发表于：Humanities and Arts · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.57237/j.ha.2025.01.001 · 研究领域：Vietnamese History and Culture Studies、Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature

Set in the context of contemporary social reality, Margaret Atwood explores the desolate following the decline of human civilization and uses the food crisis in this apocalyptic world as a starting point to integrates her dialectical thinking on the future destiny of mankind in her novel, the MaddAddam Trilogy. The degradation of the natural environment, class conflicts, and spiritual alienation all reflect the “lost” state of human society. The aspiration to overcome poverty and famine empowers vulnerable groups to resist their social reality, The organization known as God’s Gardener is composed of lower-class and marginalized individuals who share a common cultural identity. This group not only provides material security for its members but also offers them spiritual solace, helping them escape emotional alienation, class oppression, and environmental crises caused by food shortages. By affirming the interconnectedness among different human groups and establishing an “imagined community”, Atwood contemplates how humans can coexist with other creatures on Earth during the post-human era. By considering humans, animals, and nature as planetary citizens sharing a common destiny from the perspective of ecological holism, this work further conveys the author's concern for ecological balance and her hope for building a community where humans, objects, and all natural spirits are united.