A material thought surfaces in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing

This article argues that Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1972) offers a material thought that engages with the emerging New Materialist feminist insights. By contrasting with the concurrent second-wave feminism, which often sought to deny certain physical characteristics of women, Atwood embraces the inherent traits of femininity and facilitates the protagonist’s reconnection with her body through a return to the wilderness. As the protagonist interacts with the material nature around her, she comes to understand that her body is not a fixed entity but a trans-corporeal, fluid body that is open to and engaged in exchange with its surroundings. The protagonist also symbolises the oppressed Canadian national identity. In opposition to the European humanist logic represented by Americans, she emphasises a kinship, as described by Donna Jeanne Haraway, where all humans and non-humans share a common flesh, shape through interaction, and co-constitute one another. Ultimately, by exploring the fluidity of the protagonist’s body and identity, Atwood envisions a post-human democratic politics where humans and non-humans coexist as equals, fostering interdependence and co-evolution rather than domination or exploitation.