Labudova argues that food has special relevance in these novels and that characters’ hunger, limited food choices, culinary creativity and eating rituals are central to Atwood’s depictions of hostile environments. She also links food to hierarchy, dominance and oppression in Atwood’s novels, and foregrounds the problem of hunger, both psychological or physical, caused by pollution and loss of contact with the natural and authentic. The book shows how Atwood’s writing draws from a range of genres, including apocalyptic fiction, science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopia, utopia, fairy tale, myth, and thriller – and how food is an important, highly versatile motif linking these intertextual threads. Katarina Labudova lectures on British and Canadian literature at the Department of English Language and Literature, Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Slovakia. She co-edited Presences and Absences: Transdisciplinary Essays (2013). She has published numerous articles on Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, identity, monstrosity and the representations of the body and food in postmodern literatures. |