(un)natural Bodies, Endangered Species, And Embodied Others In Margaret Atwood\u27s Oryx And Crake

The developing knowledge of life sciences is at the crux of Margaret Atwood\u27s 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\u27s scientific, cultural, and environmental projections. Through the trope of extinction, Atwood\u27s 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\u27s organic connections with non-human others through interspecies gene-splicing and the ensuing hybridity. In this perspective, Atwood\u27s text provides a dialogue on humankind\u27s 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\u27s role on earth as an integrated organism rather than an intellectual singularity