Paradise in Hell: Mapping Out Ustopian Cartographies in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy

Abstract

The paper examines Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy from the fertile lens of cartographical studies of space. Initially, it explores the relationship between cartography and Atwood’s literary oeuvre. Then, it draws upon Foucault’s theory of heterotopia to consider its relevance to Atwood’s Ustopia. It seeks to fill in the gap in the critical studies written on Atwood’s ustopian trilogy. The paper explores how Atwood has diegetically constructed ustopian cartographies in which dystopian spaces are permeated with heterotopic locations of utopian resistance. It attempts to elucidate that the diachronic analysis must be complemented by a synchronic analysis of space. It develops the hypothesis that the ustopian cartographies of the spaces occupied by the characters in Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy have resolved the tension between utopia and dystopia. By theorizing the cartographies of her ustopia, Atwood establishes herself as a literary cartographer.