Sustainable Cities and Communities in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing: An Ecofeminist Urban Critique

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-618-0_8How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Ecofeminism; Ecological Alienation; Green Infrastructure; Sustainable Cities

Abstract

“Developing Sustainable Cities” aims to balance urban development with environmental quality, fairness and affordability. For present and future generations, this approach seeks to provide an environment that is just, sustainable and resilient. First published in 1972, this detailed ecocritical and ecofeminist reading of Margaret Atwood’s fiction, Surfacing, posits an intricate stance towards questions regarding sustainable urban life. In Atwood’s work, modern urban life is criticized for the fact that people live like this: they are burdened by technology which may be causing environmental deterioration; and, although depersonalized “Progress” removes any meaningful expression from their lives as human beings (especially women) are increasingly isolated not only from nature but also their own societies. Furthermore, as Surfacing is often subjected to psychological and feminist criticism, such a reading contributes crucial insights regarding ecological and urban aspects of the novel. This article focuses on the novel’s exploration of core sustainability issues: smart city form, affordable housing, adaptability, infrastructure (green and grey), and sustainable transport. Ecofeminist readings of Atwood’s story insinuates criticism of modern kind(s) of city planning that fail to consider an awareness about ecology and the human-organic relationship. Instead, Surfacing serves as a literary call to reconsider how we (collectively) imagine, build, and sustain our cities and communities. In the end, Surfacing is a literary challenge to reconsider how cities and communities are built, lived in, and valued.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Rajni Devi
AU  - Jyoti Syal
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/16
TI  - Sustainable Cities and Communities in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing: An Ecofeminist Urban Critique
BT  - Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Library & Technology on “Artificial Intelligence and Humanities in Library and Education 4.0 (AIHLE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 101
EP  - 108
SN  - 1951-6851
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-618-0_8
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-618-0_8
ID  - Devi2026
ER  -