Sustainability Evolution and Evaluation: Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects for a Sustainable Future in Margaret Atwood’s Work

The call for sustainability has been growing louder and louder in the past decade, but in the last year only, it has intensified so much that sustainability has become a must for all private and public bodies. Why is that? Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on politics and everyday life, the past year has been a year of confinement, of unrest and uncertainty, most of all, of vulnerability. Humanity found itself somehow suspended in a limbo of solitude and unease. This suspension however brought the gifts of time and space; time and space for thought, for self-reflection and introspection. Humanity had a chance to reflect on its fundamental values, on the value of life itself. At the same time, while everybody was in lockdown, nature had the chance to breathe and we witnessed its true rebirth. All around the world we saw how fast nature can adapt and heal, thanks to the dwindling or the suspension of industrial activities: air became cleaner; animals not seen for decades started coming out of hiding; even the Antarctic ozone hole has closed up! Mankind saw what an exuberant and generous nature looks like, happy to take back territories and to be reborn. We could say humans were inspired by it. Never as today sustainability becomes a central topic for humanity’s new beginning. It is the key to unlock the better future that humankind hopes to one day reach, a sustainable one. But what does sustainable mean? Also, what is literature’s role in this search for a better, more sustainable, tomorrow? After describing the meaning of the word sustainable and analyzing the triadic nature of sustainability (social, environmental and economic), I will discuss its application to literature, specifically to speculative fiction, and its manifestation, through ecocritical thought, in the works of Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam), identifying themes and symbols that carry strong thought-provoking ideas, such as the climate change, the fast (maybe too fast) advancement of technology, man’s manipulation and exploitation of nature, oppressive politics and over-powerful corporations. These narrative themes and symbols however don’t evoke at all elements and ideologies that, taken as they are, could inspire us for a more sustainable world, so much so that some believe that by describing such terrible and negative futures for our planet, speculative fiction, 11 along with science fiction, actually feeds a feeling of fear, fear of the future, of the unknown, maybe even of humanity itself, that paralyzes us and has us worrying about what the future might hold. So how are these elements expressions of sustainable literature? Might this very feeling of fear be the push mankind’s needs to move on a more positive path? I’ll discuss how speculative literature becomes sustainable by shedding light on negative aspects and problems of contemporary society, therefore helping humanity see what must change and at the same time allowing it to understand which positive elements should become fundamental in the construction of a better, sustainable future. As of now, this future is just an idea, a “Utopia” maybe, but nevertheless, thanks to literature, people have begun shaping this dream with their longing for more positivity, nature, and cohesion.