Apocalypse or Revelation?: Humanity Reconsidered in Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy

Margaret Atwood, a prominent Canadian and North American author, masterfully blends various genres to address contemporary issues, such as feminism, the Anthropocene, biomedicine, and posthumanism, crafting powerful allegories for future societies. Her critically acclaimed MaddAddam trilogy, which took a decade to complete, explores these themes across three novels: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam. This article aims to investigate the themes of biocapitalism, feminist agency and companionship, and the concept of the Anthropocene within Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy, providing a holistic analysis of these crucial aspects. In Oryx and Crake, the rampant development of biomedical and genetic engineering leads to a form of technological domination, blurring the lines between species and resulting in biocapitalism where human bodies become capital. Corporate governance, surveillance, and the pursuit of perceived perfection further entrench a medicalized society with an overreliance on technology. The MaddAddam trilogy emphasizes the calamitous repercussions of anthropocentricity, neoliberalism, and biocapitalism, as the unfettered commodification of life ultimately brings about its near destruction. The Year of the Flood provides a polyphonic view of the "Waterless Flood" catastrophe through multiple female narrators, unlike the single-narrator perspective in Oryx and Crake. Atwood emphasizes women's victimhood and survival by exploring the experiences of postfeminist characters like Amanda and Ren, who face human cruelty and sexual predator-prey dynamics. Although they believe they are the only survivors, the female narrators record their experiences in diaries, symbolizing hope and the preservation of civilization, anticipating that their records may be read in the future. MaddAddam, the concluding novel in Atwood's trilogy, serves as a synthesis of the intricate narratives and themes found in Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, presenting the story as more of a revelation than an apocalypse. The trilogy emphasizes narrative world-building and ethical frameworks, allowing readers to form their own moral judgments on the ecological crisis through aesthetic simulations. In MaddAddam, Atwood conceptualizes a realm wherein various beings cooperate for the sake of survival, as the remaining human populace adjusts their interactive dynamics with nonhuman counterparts by reevaluating the parameters for individuality. This ultimately underscores the aspect of agency as an ongoing procedure of self-construction of identity within an interdependent network of relationships. In conclusion, this article examines the MaddAddam trilogy as a whole, delving deeply into human potential for devastation and endurance through Atwood's enthralling narrative, which compels readers to face the repercussions of our deeds while contemplating the possibility of renewal amid calamity.

關鍵字

Margaret Atwood ； MaddAddam trilogy ； biocapitalism ； feminist agency ； revelation

並列摘要

瑪格麗特．愛特伍是加拿大的知名作家，擅長融合各種文類，創作關切當代重要議題的作品。《瘋狂亞當》三部曲歷時十年完成，包括《劍羚與秧雞》、《洪水之年》與《瘋狂亞當》等三部小說，觸及生物醫學、基因工程、女性自主、人類世和後人類主義等主題，被視為可預見未來世界之社會性寓言。在《劍羚與秧雞》中，透過單一男性敘述者的角度，呈現生物醫學和基因工程在毫無倫理規範下，發展出一個過度依賴生物科技的醫療化社會，及其衍生的各種疑慮。《洪水之年》則透過多重女性敘事角度，對「無水之洪」的災難提供一個多元的視角，她們在日記中記錄了她們的經歷，殘存的書寫記錄象徵著希望和文明的保存。《瘋狂亞當》是三部曲中的最後一部小說，在《瘋狂亞當》中，愛特伍想像一個新世界，各種生物為了生存而合作，倖存的舊人類與基因改造的新人類、新物種，形成新的生態系與動態平衡，最終打破了人類中心論的觀點，在各物種彼此相互依存的關係網絡中，重塑自我認同。作品想要呈現內容可視為災難後重生的啟示錄，而非世界毀滅的末世錄。本文視《瘋狂亞當》三部曲為一整體概念，針對作品中的生物資本主義、女性自覺與人類世等概念，進行整體分析。透過愛特伍的宏觀敘事，深入探討人性中的潛在野心，因過度追求發展所導致的破壞，以及倖存人類的韌性及災難中重生的可能性。