“The Island Is a Theatre”: Metafiction, Institution, and Scenery in Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed

Abstract

This article examines Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed (2016) as metafiction rather than a simple update of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Unlike other Hogarth Shakespeare adaptations, which set their source plays in modern settings and leave interpretation implicit, Atwood’s novel directly engages with, teaches, and debates The Tempest within its own framework, making adaptation part of its story. Using the play’s extensive critical history as a reflection on theatre and authorship, and Linda Hutcheon’s view of adaptation as a visible act of “transcoding” across mediums, genres, and frames, the article shows how Hag-Seed shifts Prospero’s magical power into a more ordinary and transparent realm of institutional authority: Felix Phillips’s power relies on boards, ministries, and funding cycles, unlike Prospero’s. The article further argues that this shift depends on the novel’s distinct Canadian setting, which incorporates real institutions such as the Stratford Festival and Ontario’s arts bureaucracy, a national tradition of critical hostility (Frye’s “garrison mentality,” Atwood’s Survival), and an Indigenous voice that highlights settler-colonial history. These elements keep the connections between Shakespeare’s original and Atwood’s reimagining visibly intertwined, illustrating that meaning is shaped by who reads a text and where, rather than residing solely within the text itself.