The Portrayal of the Polish-Lithuanian Peasantry in British Travel Memoirs, 1764-1795
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69760/portuni.0106001Keywords:
Margaret Atwood, Surfacing, ecofeminism, Canadian literature, Baltic identity, postcolonialism, psychological traumaAbstract
This article examines Margaret Atwood’s 1972 novel Surfacing as a complex narrative of self-discovery, conceptualized here as an ‘ecology of self’. The analysis posits that the unnamed protagonist’s psychological healing is achieved through an ecofeminist immersion in the Canadian wilderness, which functions as a simultaneous confrontation with repressed personal trauma and a postcolonial rejection of patriarchal, consumerist ideology, metaphorically termed ‘Americanism’. This study employs an integrated theoretical framework of ecofeminism, psychoanalysis, and postcolonialism to argue that these are not discrete but interlocking systems of oppression. The paper’s original contribution lies in its comparative analysis, which reveals profound thematic resonances between Atwood’s Canadian narrative and the cultural and historical experience of the Baltic states. By comparing the novel’s exploration of identity formation against a hegemonic neighbour, the role of nature in national resilience, and the recovery from collective trauma with the post-Soviet Baltic context, this study establishes Surfacing as a work of transnational significance, offering a powerful model for post-oppression identity formation relevant to the Baltic region.
References
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (Eds.). (2006). The post-colonial studies reader (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Atwood, M. (1972a). Surfacing. McClelland and Stewart.
Atwood, M. (1972b). Survival: A thematic guide to Canadian literature. Anansi.
Bouson, J. B. (1993). Brutal choreographies: Oppositional strategies and narrative design in the novels of Margaret Atwood. University of Massachusetts Press.
Castro, G. (2000). An interview with Margaret Atwood. In R. M. Nischik (Ed.), Margaret Atwood: Works and impact (pp. 277–285). Camden House.
Howells, C. A. (2000). Margaret Atwood: The Canadian nationalist. In R. M. Nischik (Ed.), Margaret Atwood: Works and impact (pp. 166–179). Camden House.
Kazlauskas, E., & Zelviene, P. (2016). Trauma research in the Baltic countries: From political oppression to recovery. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 7(1), Article 29295. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v7.29295
Kurvet-Käosaar, L. (2013). Deportation and trauma narratives: Women’s life stories from the Soviet life stories of Estonians abroad. Journal of Baltic Studies, 44(3), 321–342.
Love, G. A. (2003). Practical ecocriticism: Literature, biology, and the environment. University of Virginia Press.
Mole, R. C. M. (2012). The Baltic States from the Soviet Union to the European Union: Identity, discourse and power in the post-communist transition of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Routledge.
Niederhoff, B. (2009). The return of the dead in Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Alias Grace. Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, 19(1–3), 74–90.
Parker, S. (2016). On the road to a postcolonial consciousness: a reading of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing. Lapis Lazuli - An International Literary Journal, 6(1), 115–124.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). University of Illinois Press.
Tolan, F. (2009). The psychoanalytic theme in Margaret Atwood's fiction: A response to Burkhard Niederhoff. Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, 19(1–3), 91–100.
Warren, K. J. (1990). The power and the promise of ecological feminism. Environmental Ethics, 12(2), 125–146.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Porta Universorum
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
License Terms
All articles published in Porta Universorum are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license permits:
-
Sharing (copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format),
-
Adapting (remixing, transforming, and building upon the material),
-
for non-commercial purposes only,
-
with proper attribution to the original author(s) and source.
Commercial use of the material is not permitted without prior written permission from the publisher.
