碩士 / 國立高雄師範大學 / 英語學系 / 103 / Abstract
Margaret Atwood sketches a post-apocalyptic wasteland in her speculative fiction, Oryx and Crake. Murky and bleak as the story shows, it is to ring alarm bells. Therefore, with the work of fiction , this thesis problematises that with the banner of scientific objectivity, science or social sciences and consortia as accomplices, subjective intentions (individuals) are being manipulated and deployed. However, subjects as objects, we are all in one of the machinery under a larger context of the power mechanism without knowing the condition.
The novel problematises several effects of bio-politics, such as technocracy and systems of classification, all of which seems to guarantee everyone a perfect life. A utopian plan is thought to save the tottering world. My argument is under the regime of bio-power, the subjectivity of an individual is passive and everyone acts like a docile body. However, can we see any resistance in the novel? Do we still have some hope woven in the storyline?
To pursue a quality life and to lead a life of great happiness, a vigilant attitude is indispensable. Jimmy the Snowman, though wounded and traumatized, survives the human calamity. Snowman’s ability to love and reflection signals hope for future, which echoes an art of existence to the care of the self and then the others from the Greco-Roman period. Besides, Jimmy the Snowman bears a questioning attitude to reflect on lives he has lead, trying to break a passive subjectivity under the bio-power.
Through the genealogy of the care of the self from the Greco-Roman period to modern times, Foucault provides us a vision to see the shaping of subjectivity. Hence, given the care of the self in ancient times, an art of existence, the ethics of life, provides us examples to draw an experience. In this way, although Oryx and Crake is an open-ended story, left with survivors and Jimmy the Snowman, I believe that Atwood does not give us an apocalypse but a world waiting for making amends.
Keywords: post-apocalyptic, speculative, technocracy, the care of the self
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TW/103NKNU5240003 |
Date | January 2015 |
Creators | 黃嬿霖 |
Contributors | 朱雯娟 |
Source Sets | National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan |
Language | zh-TW |
Detected Language | English |
Type | 學位論文 ; thesis |
Format | 77 |
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