Resonance of Resistance: Ecofeminist Re-readings of Ecoempathy to Nature as Female Resistance in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing

Abstract

This essay provides an in-depth ecofeminist analysis of Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1972), examining how the protagonist’s emotional connections to the Canadian wilderness—conceptualized as ecoempathy—function as feminist acts of resistance against patriarchal oppression. Ecofeminism, which links the subjugation of women and nature under patriarchal systems, offers a framework to explore how the unnamed narrator’s affective and cognitive empathy for the non-human world challenges anthropocentric and gendered hierarchies. By integrating ecofeminist theories from scholars such as Greta Gaard, Val Plumwood, and Karen Warren with the concept of ecoempathy, this study analyzes key narrative moments—sensory immersion in the wilderness, rejection of patriarchal language and consumerism, confrontation with gendered violence, and symbolic rebirth—to demonstrate how the narrator reclaims agency through ecological interconnectedness. The essay argues that Surfacing positions ecoempathy as a subversive feminist strategy, redefining identity and power outside patriarchal constraints, and extends this resistance to readers, inspiring ecological and feminist solidarity. Employing MLA 9th edition citation standards, this analysis situates Surfacing within broader literary and environmental discourses, highlighting its enduring relevance to contemporary ecofeminist thought.