Page - 31 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

Stephanie Bender Just Popular Entertainment or Longing for a Posthuman Eden? The Apocalypse in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy ABSTRACT In the context of the ecological crisis, tales of the apocalypse have become a regular feature of the contemporary cultural imaginary, be it in popular feature films, non-fic- tional texts, or dystopian novels. Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy (2004 [2003], 2010 [2009], 2014 [2013]) investigates this curious form of entertainment both by em- ploying the template of the apocalypse itself and by reflecting on its cause and effect at the same time. The novels reveal how worlds and their respective compasses of good and evil are constructed through storytelling and that the apocalypse is also a story which functions either as a moral structuring device or as an anaesthetic for the es- tranged subjects of late capitalism. Assuming a meta-perspective, the MaddAddam Trilo- gy engenders ethical reflections on possible futures, incorporating recent philosophical strands like transhumanism and posthumanism. KEYWORDS (Post-) Apocalyptic Fiction, Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy, Narrative World- making, Ethics, Posthumanism, Ecology BIOGRAPHY Stephanie Bender is currently a PhD candidate in English Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Her dissertation topic is “Future Fictions in the 21st Century: Ethics and Aesthetics”. In addition to a degree in English and Sport Sciences (University of Freiburg), she holds a BA in International Business Management (HFU Furtwangen). Her research interests are therefore manifold and interdisciplinary, con- verging on questions of economics, ethics and ecology. Avatar (James Cameron, US 2009), the world’s most popular film ever,1 depicts a future humanity on the quest for new resources having plundered planet Earth to unviability; Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, US 2014), another block- 1 Cf. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/ [accessed 20 September 2018]. DOI: 10.25364/05.05:2019.2.3 Just Popular Entertainment or Longing for a Posthuman Eden? | 31www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 31–50