ENTANGLED LIVES: A HARAWAYAN READING OF MARGARET ATWOOD’S THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD
ENTANGLED LIVES: A HARAWAYAN READING OF MARGARET ATWOOD’S THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD

Summary/Abstract: Anthropogenic climate change, destructive effects of scientific and technological developments, natural disasters, pandemics, the danger of a new world war, and the threat of a nuclear attack exacerbate the climate of insecurity and instability that has characterized the world since the Second World War by highlighting the fragility and vulnerability of human existence. The increasing popularity and prevalence of post-apocalyptic fiction in contemporary literature can be seen as a reflection of this global anxiety related to the end of the world. This article aims to analyse one of the examples of the genre, The Year of the Flood (2009), written by Margaret Atwood, by drawing on Donna Haraway’s idea of making kin. This study examines the ways in which Atwood offers alternative ways of living and refiguring human relations with their environment in a period of crisis, which is created by humanity itself. Disrupting the hierarchy between human and nonhuman, Atwood questions anthropocentric beliefs and embraces multispecies connection and collaboration in order to stay with the trouble. This article explores how Atwood’s characters form multispecies alliances and kinships with nonhuman beings without objectifying them to change the story.

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