This essay attempts to study transhumanism and its role in the anthropogenic pandemic at the center of the novel, in order to show that transhumanist thought was a driving factor behind it. By looking at transhumanist concerns in the portrayed society, and the beliefs of Crake, one uncovers that Crake was able to exploit the desire for enhancement of humanity as a whole in order to achieve the ultimate transhumanist goal: the near-perfect and immortal posthuman Crakers. Analyzing the intentions behind the creation of the posthuman, and Snowman’s relationship to them, it becomes clear that the posthuman is a replacement of existing humanity, since the sought after qualities of the posthuman can only be attained through genetic engineering before birth and not by altering individual humans. I hope to have shown that the novel contains a warning about transhumanism and the potential misuse of science when one person think things through to its logical conclusion. / Denna uppsats ämnar studera transhumanism och dess roll I den antropogeniska pandemi som står I centrum I romanen, med avsikt att visa att transhumanistiska tankesätt var en drivande kraft bakom den. Genom att titta på transhumanistiska intressen i det beskrivna samhället och Crakes egna idéer, upptäcker en att Crake lyckades exploatera önskan om en förbättrad mänsklighet för att uppnå det ultimata transhumanistiska målet: det nästan perfekta och odödliga posthumana varelserna Crakers. Genom att analysera avsikterna bakom skapandet av dessa posthumana, och Snowmans förhållande till dem, blir det tydligt att the posthumana är en ersättning för redan existerande människor, eftersom de begärliga förmågor och egenskaper som de posthumana besitter endast kan anskaffas genom genteknik och inte genom att förändra individuella människor. Jag hoppas att ha visat att romanen innehåller en varning om transhumanism och det potentiella missbruket av vetenskap när en person tänker igenom något tills dess logiska slutpunkt.

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This essay explores the theme of deep ecology in Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake. It analyzes how the novel deals with the topics of environmental disasters and the apocalypse. It describes humanity’s effect on the planet and how the inventions of the Crakers and the BlyssPluss pill can be seen as good things. It argues that Crake can be seen as the savior of this new and improved world that he creates and that the human species’ annihilation is the only way. / Den här uppsatsen utforskar tema såsom ekokritik och djupekologi i Margaret Atwoods roman Oryx and Crake. Den analyserar hur romanen behandlar  ämnena miljökatastrofer och apokalypsen. Den beskriver människans effekt på planeten och hur uppfinningar såsom Crakers och BlyssPluss pillret kan vara bra saker. Vidare argumenterar den att Crake kan vara vår räddare för denna nya och förbättrade värld som han har skapat och hur förintelsen av människan är den enda rätta vägen.

Seja na literatura, em filmes ou séries de TV, as temáticas da utopia/distopia e do apocalipse se tornam cada vez mais recorrentes. Tendo por base o arranjo de um design social utópico/distópico e de um imaginário apocalíptico, esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar o romance Oryx e Crake, publicado em 2003 pela escritora canadense Margaret Atwood, autora de uma obra extensa, que é considerada ao mesmo tempo acadêmica e popular. Oryx e Crake retrata um universo ficcional onde a humanidade foi quase totalmente aniquilada por uma epidemia que irrompeu simultaneamente em vários países. Nesse cenário pós-apocalíptico, o Homem das Neves, único sobrevivente provável, busca alimentos e suprimentos em uma área costeira, relembrando seu passado e dividindo residência com criaturas geneticamente modificadas. Considerando uma possível combinação de gêneros literários e efeitos narrativos, o objetivo desta investigação é explorar o romance, separando o passado e o presente da narrativa, cada um associado, respectivamente, aos conceitos de ustopia (termo cunhado por Atwood, para se referir à fusão entre utopia e distopia) e de apocalipse/Armageddon. Os conceitos são analisados com base em como se relacionam entre si e, em última instância, quanto ao que podem revelar sobre a nossa sociedade atual. Como aporte teórico-crítico, a investigação recorre a nomes como Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987) e Peter Fitting (2010), bem como a uma série de estudiosos atwoodianos, especialmente Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). A voz de Margaret Atwood como teórica e crítica literária também permeia todo o texto, fornecendo informações valiosas para a análise de sua própria ficção. Pela sua riqueza tanto em termos de forma quanto de conteúdo, Oryx e Crake representa um desafio para os seus leitores e estudiosos. Ao final do trabalho, fica manifesto o quão assustadoramente próximo este mundo ficcional criado por Atwood está da nossa realidade, sendo a imagem de um universo que, em certo grau, já habitamos. / The themes of utopia/dystopia and apocalypse are becoming increasingly more frequent in literature, movies or TV series. Taking into account an arrangement of a utopian/dystopian social design and an apocalyptic imagination, this thesis aims at examining the novel Oryx and Crake, published in 2003 by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author to an extensive body of works, considered at one time academic and popular. Oryx and Crake portrays a fictional universe where humankind has been almost entirely annihilated by an epidemic that broke out simultaneously in several countries. In this post-apocalyptic scenario, Snowman, the probable sole survivor, scavenges for food and supplies in a coastal area, recollecting his past and sharing residence with genetically modified creatures. Considering a possible combination of literary genres and moods, the focus of this investigation is the play of past and present in the novel, each one associated with the concepts of ustopia (a term coined by Atwood to refer to the fusion of utopia and dystopia) and apocalypse/Armageddon, respectively. The concepts are analyzed on the basis of how they relate to each other and, ultimately, as to what they reveal about our contemporary society. For theoretical support, the thesis draws on names like Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987), Peter Fitting (2010), and on a number of Atwoodian scholars and critics, especially Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). The voice of Margaret Atwood as theoretical and literary critic also permeates the entire thesis, providing valuable insights for the analysis of her own fiction. For its wealth in terms of form and content, Oryx and Crake poses a significant challenge for readers and researchers. At the end of the work, it is evident that the fictional universe created by Atwood is frighteningly close to our reality, reflecting a world that, to a certain extent, we already inhabit.

Seja na literatura, em filmes ou séries de TV, as temáticas da utopia/distopia e do apocalipse se tornam cada vez mais recorrentes. Tendo por base o arranjo de um design social utópico/distópico e de um imaginário apocalíptico, esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar o romance Oryx e Crake, publicado em 2003 pela escritora canadense Margaret Atwood, autora de uma obra extensa, que é considerada ao mesmo tempo acadêmica e popular. Oryx e Crake retrata um universo ficcional onde a humanidade foi quase totalmente aniquilada por uma epidemia que irrompeu simultaneamente em vários países. Nesse cenário pós-apocalíptico, o Homem das Neves, único sobrevivente provável, busca alimentos e suprimentos em uma área costeira, relembrando seu passado e dividindo residência com criaturas geneticamente modificadas. Considerando uma possível combinação de gêneros literários e efeitos narrativos, o objetivo desta investigação é explorar o romance, separando o passado e o presente da narrativa, cada um associado, respectivamente, aos conceitos de ustopia (termo cunhado por Atwood, para se referir à fusão entre utopia e distopia) e de apocalipse/Armageddon. Os conceitos são analisados com base em como se relacionam entre si e, em última instância, quanto ao que podem revelar sobre a nossa sociedade atual. Como aporte teórico-crítico, a investigação recorre a nomes como Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987) e Peter Fitting (2010), bem como a uma série de estudiosos atwoodianos, especialmente Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). A voz de Margaret Atwood como teórica e crítica literária também permeia todo o texto, fornecendo informações valiosas para a análise de sua própria ficção. Pela sua riqueza tanto em termos de forma quanto de conteúdo, Oryx e Crake representa um desafio para os seus leitores e estudiosos. Ao final do trabalho, fica manifesto o quão assustadoramente próximo este mundo ficcional criado por Atwood está da nossa realidade, sendo a imagem de um universo que, em certo grau, já habitamos. / The themes of utopia/dystopia and apocalypse are becoming increasingly more frequent in literature, movies or TV series. Taking into account an arrangement of a utopian/dystopian social design and an apocalyptic imagination, this thesis aims at examining the novel Oryx and Crake, published in 2003 by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author to an extensive body of works, considered at one time academic and popular. Oryx and Crake portrays a fictional universe where humankind has been almost entirely annihilated by an epidemic that broke out simultaneously in several countries. In this post-apocalyptic scenario, Snowman, the probable sole survivor, scavenges for food and supplies in a coastal area, recollecting his past and sharing residence with genetically modified creatures. Considering a possible combination of literary genres and moods, the focus of this investigation is the play of past and present in the novel, each one associated with the concepts of ustopia (a term coined by Atwood to refer to the fusion of utopia and dystopia) and apocalypse/Armageddon, respectively. The concepts are analyzed on the basis of how they relate to each other and, ultimately, as to what they reveal about our contemporary society. For theoretical support, the thesis draws on names like Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987), Peter Fitting (2010), and on a number of Atwoodian scholars and critics, especially Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). The voice of Margaret Atwood as theoretical and literary critic also permeates the entire thesis, providing valuable insights for the analysis of her own fiction. For its wealth in terms of form and content, Oryx and Crake poses a significant challenge for readers and researchers. At the end of the work, it is evident that the fictional universe created by Atwood is frighteningly close to our reality, reflecting a world that, to a certain extent, we already inhabit.

Seja na literatura, em filmes ou séries de TV, as temáticas da utopia/distopia e do apocalipse se tornam cada vez mais recorrentes. Tendo por base o arranjo de um design social utópico/distópico e de um imaginário apocalíptico, esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar o romance Oryx e Crake, publicado em 2003 pela escritora canadense Margaret Atwood, autora de uma obra extensa, que é considerada ao mesmo tempo acadêmica e popular. Oryx e Crake retrata um universo ficcional onde a humanidade foi quase totalmente aniquilada por uma epidemia que irrompeu simultaneamente em vários países. Nesse cenário pós-apocalíptico, o Homem das Neves, único sobrevivente provável, busca alimentos e suprimentos em uma área costeira, relembrando seu passado e dividindo residência com criaturas geneticamente modificadas. Considerando uma possível combinação de gêneros literários e efeitos narrativos, o objetivo desta investigação é explorar o romance, separando o passado e o presente da narrativa, cada um associado, respectivamente, aos conceitos de ustopia (termo cunhado por Atwood, para se referir à fusão entre utopia e distopia) e de apocalipse/Armageddon. Os conceitos são analisados com base em como se relacionam entre si e, em última instância, quanto ao que podem revelar sobre a nossa sociedade atual. Como aporte teórico-crítico, a investigação recorre a nomes como Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987) e Peter Fitting (2010), bem como a uma série de estudiosos atwoodianos, especialmente Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). A voz de Margaret Atwood como teórica e crítica literária também permeia todo o texto, fornecendo informações valiosas para a análise de sua própria ficção. Pela sua riqueza tanto em termos de forma quanto de conteúdo, Oryx e Crake representa um desafio para os seus leitores e estudiosos. Ao final do trabalho, fica manifesto o quão assustadoramente próximo este mundo ficcional criado por Atwood está da nossa realidade, sendo a imagem de um universo que, em certo grau, já habitamos. / The themes of utopia/dystopia and apocalypse are becoming increasingly more frequent in literature, movies or TV series. Taking into account an arrangement of a utopian/dystopian social design and an apocalyptic imagination, this thesis aims at examining the novel Oryx and Crake, published in 2003 by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author to an extensive body of works, considered at one time academic and popular. Oryx and Crake portrays a fictional universe where humankind has been almost entirely annihilated by an epidemic that broke out simultaneously in several countries. In this post-apocalyptic scenario, Snowman, the probable sole survivor, scavenges for food and supplies in a coastal area, recollecting his past and sharing residence with genetically modified creatures. Considering a possible combination of literary genres and moods, the focus of this investigation is the play of past and present in the novel, each one associated with the concepts of ustopia (a term coined by Atwood to refer to the fusion of utopia and dystopia) and apocalypse/Armageddon, respectively. The concepts are analyzed on the basis of how they relate to each other and, ultimately, as to what they reveal about our contemporary society. For theoretical support, the thesis draws on names like Erich Fromm (1990), Fredric Jameson (2005; 2009), Gregory Claeys (2010), Northrop Frye (1973), Paul Alkon (1987), Peter Fitting (2010), and on a number of Atwoodian scholars and critics, especially Coral Ann Howells (2005; 2006). The voice of Margaret Atwood as theoretical and literary critic also permeates the entire thesis, providing valuable insights for the analysis of her own fiction. For its wealth in terms of form and content, Oryx and Crake poses a significant challenge for readers and researchers. At the end of the work, it is evident that the fictional universe created by Atwood is frighteningly close to our reality, reflecting a world that, to a certain extent, we already inhabit.

This thesis explores Atwood's depiction of gender in Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. In an interview from 1972, Margaret Atwood spoke on survival: "People see two alternatives. You can be part of the machine or you can be something that gets run over by it. And I think there has to be a third thing." I assert that Atwood depicts this "third thing" through her characters who navigate between the binaries of "masculine" and "feminine" in a third realm of gender. As the female characters—regardless of their passive or aggressive behavior—engage in a quest for agency, they must overcome bodily limitations. Oryx—the quintessential problematic, oppressed feminine figure—and Ren are both associated with sex as they are passed from man to man throughout their lives. Furthermore, as other females (namely, Amanda and Toby) adopt masculine traits associated with power in an attempt at self-preservation both before and after the waterless flood, men in the novels strive to subvert this power through rape to remind these women of their confinement within their physical bodies and to reinstitute the binary gender system. The men also span the gender continuum, with Crake representing the masculine "machine" and Jimmy gravitating toward the feminine victim. Crake, who seems to live life uninhibited from his body, appears to escape the bodily confinements that the women experience, while Jimmy's relationship to his body is more complex. As Jimmy competes to "out-masculinize" Crake, and Amanda and Toby struggle to avoid both identification with and demolition by the machine, readers of the novels are invited to think beyond the "machinery" of gender norms to consider gender as a continuum instead of a dualistic factor.

The developing knowledge of life sciences is at the crux of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake as she examines human promise gone awry in a near-future dystopia. This thesis examines aspects of posthumanism, ecocriticism, and feminism in the novel's scientific, cultural, and environmental projections. Through the trope of extinction, Atwood's text foregrounds the effects of human exceptionalism and instrumentalism in relation to the natural world, and engenders an analysis of human identity through its biological and cultural aspects. Extinction thus serves as a metaphor for both human development and human excesses, redefining the idea of human within the context of vulnerable species. Oryx and Crake reveals humanity's organic connections with non-human others through interspecies gene-splicing and the ensuing hybridity. In this perspective, Atwood's text provides a dialogue on humankind's alienation from the natural world and synchronic connections to the animal other, and poses timely questions for twenty-first century consumerism, globalism, and humanist approaches to nature. The loss of balance provoked by the apocalyptic situation in Oryx and Crake challenges commonplace attitudes toward beneficial progress. This imbalance signals the need for a new narrative: A consilient reimagining of humanity's role on earth as an integrated organism rather than an intellectual singularity.

In her 2007 essay “Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency),” Lauren Berlant asserts that “in the scene of slow death, a condition of being worn out by the activity of reproducing life, agency can be an activity of maintenance” (759). This concept emphasizes the difficulty of maintaining one’s agency while experiencing chronic exhaustion, or what can be referred to as the “wearied state.” Utilizing Berlant’s theoretical framework, this thesis investigates the concept of weariness in two dystopic texts: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and Oryx and Crake (2003). The respective protagonists of The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake, Offred and Oryx, each struggle to maintain their agency in the dystopic societies that work to oppress them. Offred, by utilizing wordplay, locates a way to successfully navigate her weariness while simultaneously subverting these who hold power over her. Oryx, oppositely, fails to recognize the sexual power dynamics of her position as a sex slave. Oryx fails to locate her agency, which causes her to normalize her sexually traumatic past. Overall, this thesis argues that weariness need not be final if one makes no attempt to normalize traumatic experiences, remains privy to oppressive ideologies, and retains the ability to cope.

This thesis considers the understudied issue of genetic engineering as it has been deployed in the literature of the late 20th century. With reference to the concept of the enlightened gender hybridity of Cyborg theory and an eye to ecocritical implications, I read four texts: Joan Slonczewski's 1986 science fiction novel A Door Into Ocean, Octavia Butler's science fiction trilogy Lilith's Brood – originally released between 1987 and 1989 as Xenogenesis – Simon Mawer's 1997 literary novel Mendel's Dwarf, and the first two books in Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction MaddAddam series: 2003's Oryx and Crake and 2009's The Year Of the Flood. I argue that the inclusion of genetic engineering has changed as the technology moves from science fiction to science fact, moving from the fantastic to the mundane. Throughout its recent literary history, genetic engineering has played a role in complicating questions of sexuality, paternity, and the division between nature and culture. It has also come to represent a nexus of potential cultural change, one which stands to fulfill the dramatic hybridity Haraway rhapsodized in her "Cyborg Manifesto" while also containing the potential to disrupt the ecocritical conversation by destroying what we used to understand as nature. Despite their four different takes on the issue, each of the texts I read offers a complex vision of utopian hopes and apocalyptic fears. They agree that, for better or for worse, genetic engineering is forever changing both our world and ourselves.