Reading Biotechnology: Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake

黃羿涓(Yi-chuan Huang)

指導教授 ： 廖炳惠

國立清華大學/人文社會學院/外國語文學系/碩士(2009年)

摘要

The Canadian writer Margaret Atwood has been internationally noted for her sharp feminist perspective shown in her previous fictional creations. Oryx and Crake published in 2003 marks a great transition to a male perspective and a new thematic concern about biotechnology. In this light, this thesis investigates the representation of biotechnology in Oryx and Crake. In addition to situating this novel in the modern context of the boom of biotechnological findings and modernity, this thesis argues that Oryx and Crake highlights the urgent issue of current manipulation of biotechnology and calls for more contemplation and participation in the making of science policy.
Chapter One tries to point out the insufficiencies of current interpretations. Critics tend to discuss Atwood’s fiction in relation to intertextuality or theories to the neglect of Oryx and Crake’s practical concern about the manipulation of biotechnology by biotech giants. Atwood’s fiction in fact presents an alarming critique that biotechnology is employed by First World nations and biotech companies to reap profits, exploit the less powerful nations and increase the local and global inequality.
Chapter Two emphasizes several episodes of economic exploitation by the biotech giants and their strategies to manipulate and bend science. Instead of merely pointing out the cooperation between capitalism and genetics, this chapter asks what makes possible and justifies this kind of exploitation. By digging into the historical formation of patents on life forms, the alignment between educational programs and companies, the rhetorical advertisement of biotech problems and other strategies to bend science, I argue that these strategies are in fact historical constructs and in need of more debates and public attention..
Chapter Three proceeds to discuss the ethics of reading and the ethics revealed in the novel. Oryx and Crake’s negative depiction of biotechnology has been met with harsh critiques. However, this thesis contends that many discomforting episodes in this speculative fiction could be seen as a strategy to let the readers compare the imagine world and their personal experience and knowledge on life science. The text invites the readers to listen to and understand the protagonist’s trauma, witness of the past, and responsibility to many forms of others.
Chapter Four concludes this thesis. I contend that Atwood’s attempt to tackle science is important because this novel provides a critical stance and witness to the practices of science, a seemingly opposite field to humanities. By comparing words from C. P. Snow to Stanley Fish, AHRC’s 2008 report, and Oryx and Crake, on the question, “why funding arts and humanities research” when facing the challenges posed by the practical and profitable science, we can see that this novel does not exist for pure useless pleasure, but provides useful critiques and suggestions to the society.

關鍵字

末世男女 ； 瑪格麗特 艾特伍 ； 生物科技 ； 閱讀倫理

並列摘要

加拿大女作家瑪格麗特．艾特伍向來以其深刻的女性視角展現於其小說創作中而聞名。然而，其在2003年出版之《末世男女》中所關注的議題與其男性視角可說是一重大轉折。因此，本文探討的是艾特伍於生物科技此一議題的呈現，並強調應將小說置於當代生物科技蓬勃發展與現代性的脈絡，關注小說中跨國公司操弄生物科技以獲取龐大利益的問題，並探討小說所彰顯的倫理層面。
第一章先就艾特伍的作家定位以及小說的研究現況作簡扼整理及回顧，並指出其尚待詮釋的空間。多數研究探討此一小說的互文性或由不同理論視角切入，卻忽視其較為實際層面的議題，亦即文本當中對生物科技被先進國家與跨國公司用來謀利、剝削、深化國際間不平等權力之批判。
第二章探討小說所呈現出跨國公司操弄(manipulation)生物科技作為謀利的手段。與其指出生物科技與資本主義的結合，本章討論的是支持此剝削行為背後的機制為何。藉由研究生技研發專利的歷史、產學合作、生技產品之行銷語言等，本章主張這些策略皆為歷史與社會建構下的產物，並非毫無疑義，而是需要更多辯論與關注。
第三章進而討論《末世男女》之閱讀倫理。文本中對於生物科技的負面呈現遭致許多科幻迷與科學家的猛烈抨擊，而本文主張這種使讀者不安的敘事策略旨在引起讀者對於自身經驗與文本之間的對照，並嘗試傾聽與理解主角所遭受的創傷，對過去的見證，及主角所承擔之對死者、過去、與他者的責任與關懷。這種對於各形式他者的關心是當代面臨諸多科技運用與發展決策上必須多加深思的。
末章為全文的總結，我要強調的是艾特伍在題材上轉向生物科技的重要性， C. P. Snow於1959年在《兩種文化》裡認為人文與科學的鴻溝有礙英國的發展，但他更關注的是當時科學在實務上的重要性未受到重視。然而本世紀面臨的是科技所帶來的效益，著實令人文領域面臨了很大的考驗。本文加以對照Stanley Fish與AHRC(英國藝術與人文研究委員會)對人文領域的討論，進而主張艾特伍的小說不僅企圖在兩種文化間築起一座橋樑，更帶出了新的見解，反映人文創作與閱讀有其批判與反省社會問題的力量。

並列關鍵字

Oryx and Crake ； Margaret Atwood ； Biotechnology ； ethics of reading

參考文獻

Chen, Cheng-liang. “Science, Technology and Socio-Culture: Reflections on Science Views.” Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine 6 (2008): 145-200.

Wang, Chia-Huang. “Bio-Capitalism: A Marxist Critique.” Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine 4 (2007): 17-64.

AHRC. “Leading the World: The Economic Impact of Arts and Humanities.” Bristol: AHRC, 2008.

Anderson, Warwick. “Postcolonial Technoscience.” Social Studies of Science 32 (2002): 643-58.

Arnold, David. Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.