https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i2.032
Heterotopias of Crisis and Deviance: Compounds and Pleeblands as Spaces of Biopolitical Governance in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy
ABDUL SHAFEEK. C.H
Assistant Professor of English
Farook College (Autonomous)
Affiliated to the University of Calicut
E-mail: shafeek@farookcollege.ac.in
DR. SAJITHA M. A.
Professor
Department of English
University of Calicut
E-mail: dr.sajitha.m.a@uoc.ac.in
Abstract: This study argues that, through its speculative narrative, the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood presents a vision of society governed by biopolitical mechanisms. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopower and heterotopia, the paper analyses how the corporate powers in this science fiction seek to govern the population of the future world. This is achieved through interventions such as genetic experiments and systematic categorisation of populations and the manipulation of the planet’s living beings aimed at reaping profit by the promise of improving life expectancy, mental acuity and physical development. The established urban plans detailed in the trilogy categorise people based on their biopolitical value and expected compliance. It subtly reinforces corporate dominance by controlling movement and communication. The sterile Compounds, the ‘heterotopia of crisis’ manage productivity and the pleeblands, the ‘heterotopia of deviation’ absorb disposability. The trilogy depicts a world in which corporate power is demonstrated by its capacity to admit or reject populations, and decide when and where the law is applicable.
Keywords: Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam trilogy, Biopolitics, Heterotopia
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