Genetic Engineering in the Age of Anthropocene/Capitalocene and Beyond: An Ecocritical Study of Oryx and Crake

Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003), the first novel in the MaddAddam series,
is a speculative fiction which presents a dystopian future where few humans survive in
a world dominated by genetically engineered posthumans and hybrid animals. This
post-pandemic world is presented to us through the experience of one human survivor,
Jimmy/Snowman. Jimmy used to be the friend of Crake, the scientist, who planned the
pandemic and wiped out almost all of human race. The present paper discusses the
practices of genetic engineering funded by corporate houses and tries to place it in the
context of Anthropocene and its associated concept Capitalocene. In the pre-pandemic
world, experiments in genetics were made with obvious anthropocentric goals
combined with the push for profit by the corporate houses. Crake, a kind of idealist
scientist, attempts to destabilize the practice by creating the Crakers, the genetically
programmed humanoids and planning the annihilation of natural human race through
his act of bioterrorism. The ethics of genetic engineering, practised both by the
corporate houses and Crake is discussed here along with Crake’s misdirected
idealism/egotism to play God and reverse the natural order. The ecocritical reading
highlights the fact that despite all attempts of genetic pre-programming, it is not
possible to reverse the natural order altogether; nature, always finds ways to exert itself.