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Abstract Environment is a highly loose and extended term that encompasses living and non-living organisms that naturally exist on Earth. The process influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the environment are collectively called ecology. Many phenomena and changes have been emerging and appearing day after day on a large scale as a result of the unreasonable interaction between man and his surroundings. These changes affected the Earth and its climate, geology, and biodiversity. Over the past century, human massive interventions have left dangerous impacts on ecology, forming a new distorted ecosystem hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes, viruses, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods, tornados, and windstorms. The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One “Ecology and Its Related Literary and Critical Terms: A Theoretical Background” argues the origin of the word ecology and its different definitions. It also discusses how the word has become a common theme in all fields and aspects of life. Moreover, the chapter highlights how ecocriticism has become one of the most significant studies in literature and how it has been applied to tackle the thesis from an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the reality of ecological concerns according to the vision of Margaret Atwood throughout her MaddAddam trilogy that consists of Oryx and Crake, The 204 Year of The Flood, and MaddAddam. Moreover, this Chapter argues the different definitions of ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and ecofiction. As literature is well- known for reflecting contemporary real-life issues, it cannot not have remained isolated from the theme of ecology which inspires writers to depict man as a part of the ecosystem, but he exploited nature to serve his needs. Despite the admiration of the evolutionary progress achieved, human has recently become under severe attack due to the destruction that he has made, especially over the last two centuries. Consequently, many writers see humans, or rather human destructiveness, as the real plague on the planet and offer visions of utopia placed in the post-apocalyptic era. Fiction has been giving due attention to the ecosystem for many years through what is called ecofiction which is interested in the relationship between nature and literature. In Jim Dwyer’s book where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction, Mike Vasey defines ecofiction as: Stories set in fictional landscapes that capture the essence of natural ecosystems …. (They) can build around human relationships to these ecosystems or leave out humans together. The story itself, however, takes the reader into the natural world and brings it alive. … Ideally, the landscape and ecosystems-whether fantasy or real- should be as realistic as possible and plot constraints should accord with ecological principles. (3) Thus, ecology has so many definitions due to its comprehensiveness and diversity of its elements, it is the natural system that forms the earth and its components. Ecology focuses on the study of whole systems, and it became more analytical, quantitative, and experimental over time. The discipline has become widely accepted and ecosystem concepts are now used in many environmental sciences. There are many definitions of the term ecosystem, but the most notable is that of Mathew who finds linkages between the ecological components (2004: 168): 205 Ecosystems are communities of plants and animals within a particular physical environment which is linked by a flow of materials through the non-living (abiotic) as well as the living (biotic) sections of the system. Thus, the ecosystem can range in size from the whole earth to a DROP of water although, in current practice, the term ecosystem is generally used for units below the size and biomes. Since the ecological humanities study is an interdisciplinary field that offers a sound understanding of human-based causes for social, economic, scientific, and environmental changes, the literary works try, through a critical eye, to study how this relationship affects the ecology. Hence, a new literary approach has stemmed, namely “ecocriticism”. It is the study of literary texts, in the light of an ecological theory, focusing on the position of the environment, nature, place, land, or life within literary works, by theorizing, analyzing, reading, deliberating, and studying to know the vision of writers towards the environment, especially after the emergence of movements, associations, organizations, and clubs calling for caring about the environment, after the exacerbation of the pollution phenomenon globally on land, sea, and air. Today, many parts of the universe witness multi-dimensional ecological crises, extending to the natural, economic, political, cultural, religious, and the whole social levels. Ecological problems such as water contamination, air pollution, solid and hazardous waste, soil degradation, deforestation, climate change and loss of biodiversity do not recognize political borders and pose major threats to human safety, health, and productivity. Ecocriticism is the study of literature and the environment from an interdisciplinary approach, where literature scholars analyze the literary texts that depict ecological concerns and argue the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. O. J. Joycee and Evangeline Manickam in an article titled, from Ego-centered to Eco-centered Humanism: A Wilburian Perspective in The Atlantic Literary Review, opine as follows: 206 Ecocriticism anticipates a response to the need for a humanistic understanding of the natural world in an age of environmental destruction. The war-ravaged Twentieth Century catapulted attention to the environment and since then there has been no dearth of theories and movements. Our understanding of nature is at odds with another, and there is no definitive way to judge which one is better… Nature is, therefore, an idea that takes on different meanings in different cultural contexts. (75) Margaret Atwood uses the genre of speculative science fiction to delineate the subject of ecological sadness within the Anthropocene in her trilogy of Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam, the subject of this thesis. In this sense, she accurately construes various effects of sadness that most of us feel in confronting the harm caused by people on the ecosystem. Atwood wants the reader to think about the costs of the unchecked technological progress and human shortsightedness. Issues such as animal abuse, corrupt society, genetically modified human race, oppression of women, social inequality, pollution, giving birth to a new species of human beings, bioengineering in a world ruled by technocrats, and dominated by capitalistic interests, and misuse of natural resources are among the discussions that are highlighted in the three novels. This thesis analyzes the trilogy through a literary interdisciplinary approach to ecocriticism for example but not limited, ecofeminism, wilderness, psychological, sociological, cultural, gender, and mythological approaches through literary devices to help understand and interpret the world in new ways such as symbolism, personification, dichotomy. In her MaddAddam trilogy, Atwood raises concerns about the ecosystem such as global warming, pollution, depletion of natural resources, and bioengineering. The trilogy comes as a warning against the directions taken and the 207 choices made in relation to the ecosystem. She sheds light on the relationship between humanity and its natural environment. Both Oryx& Crake and The Year of the Flood envision a world of fundamental environmental catastrophe. Throughout the MaddAddam trilogy, Atwood portrays how living beings and non-livings deal with their surrounding natural environment. She gives due attention to the role of human beings and science in devastating the universe and how they have turned human life into a materialistic one. She portrayed the anxiety that the world has reached due to the excessive consumption of the ecosystem. Chapter Two “Capitalism and Genetic Engineering: Ecological Damage in Oryx and Crake” discusses how Margaret Atwood portrays the human condition in her dystopian novel Oryx and Crake during the global pandemic. Furthermore, it seeks to demonstrate how corporate greed, the influence of scientific arrogance, and defective human nature do not only bring environmental catastrophe but also the annihilation of humanity. She investigates the society where the free market has caused widespread anarchy. Massive businesses that operate under a technocracy have decimated towns, national governments, and the ecosystem. It highlights the drastic consequences of corporate capitalism and genetic engineering innovations, and their impacts after a man-made pandemic swept the homo sapiens as a race. The novel tackles genetic manipulation, pollution, exploitation of natural resources, and abuse of the ecosystem. It sets alarm bells ringing against the current human practices toward the ecosystem, causing ecological disasters. The earth’s inhabitants become entrapped between the hammer of scientists, capitalists, and corporates on one side and the anvil of the ecological anger reaction of climate change on the other side. 208 Throughout her Oryx and Crake, Atwood generates a scenario that is driven by the current practices of global economic interests and advanced technology. Yet, she believes that humans still have solutions to face such drastic challenges. She attracts the reader to a narrative that alternates between two different storylines; the post-apocalyptic narrative line that is intertwined with one that relates events from a nearer future, all of them leading up to the ecological devastation. This destruction of the world shows the possible aftermath of human greed on Earth. Oryx and Crake tackles the alteration and depletion of natural resources because of capitalism, corporate misuse of scientific advancement, overpopulation, social inequality, government abuse of power, global warming, bioengineering, and biotechnology, and their consequences on the ecosystem in general and society in specific. It begins with the worldwide annihilation of the whole human race, and the survival of only one human and a few ”dehumanized” individuals made by a young brilliant scientist. It uncovers two interwoven timelines and reviews both the events that cause and those that happen after a bioengineered plague has annihilated nearly all of humankind. It follows the life of Jimmy who, after the plague, has named himself Snowman, alternating between pre- and post-apocalypse times. The first timeline represents the post-apocalyptic present-tense narrative that follows Snowman’s quests after the inhabitants of the earth have been wiped out by a massive deadly epidemic. The second timeline follows Jimmy (Snowman’s name before the plague) and describes how crackers, the plague, and Snowman’s existence originated. The post-apocalyptic world represents the novel’s current time, and each chapter of the novel moves back and forth between Snowman’s current experiences and memories of his life before the apocalypse when he was named Jimmy. Through Jimmy’s tormented memories, the readers realize how the end of the citizenry came from a virus made by Crake who is not only the one to be blamed for such destruction 209 but also the citizens for their loyalty to corporates which neglect the ethical and biological concerns. This chapter investigates how Oryx and Crake sheds light on the impact of capitalism, genetic engineering, commodification, overconsumption, instrumentalism, and technological advancement and what might happen in our future if their bad effects are left uncurbed and not eliminated from people’s life. It argues how they have been contributing to various forms of extinction of ecosystem organisms and affecting the survival of the ecosystem and our humanitarian instinct life, using posthumanist ecocritical theories. It questions the survival of humankind amid ecological destruction and pandemic viruses. By the end of the novel, Atwood sends the readers a powerful message about nature. Despite human science, technology, greed, control, domination, and capitalism, nature will certainly overcome humanity and defy his arrogance and ego. At the end of the novel, the Crakers seem to turn more to worshipping arts, religion, and origin. Crake’s scheme is revealed to be a failure and his experiments end up failing since his creatures Crakers express their interest in gods, material possessions, art, love, emotions, and monogamous marriage. So, in order to prevent a dystopian present, Crake invents a similarly dystopian future. Since women are the most vulnerable creature to the impacts of ecological deterioration, Chapter Three “Ecofeminism in The Year of The Flood” reviews how Atwood has brilliantly connected the domination of the ecosystem and the oppression of women by discussing The Year of The Flood through the ecofeminist critical approach. It tackles the origin of ecofeminism as a critical theory, the concept of ecofeminism, its main thoughts and ideas, and how Margaret Atwood has been affected by ecofeminism thoughts while writing her novel The Year of The Flood. 210 The Year of the Flood (2009) is seen very largely through the eyes of powerless women, whose individual characters, temperaments, and emotions are vivid and memorable. Atwood explores the postfeminist world of the pre-plague society at its tyrannical extreme, from the viewpoints of two women (Toby and Ren). Toby the main protagonist, works at Secret Burgers, a chain of restaurants selling burgers that contain secret animal protein from rats and cats. She is a victim of the corpocratic order. Since Margaret Atwood believes that women’s rights and ecological issues are very interconnected, she could not give due attention to one of them and neglect the other. Thus, in The Year of The Flood, the reader navigates the theme of the ecological crisis from the perspective of ecofeminist criticism. This chapter aims to investigate how Atwood has skillfully merged her ecological anxiety and feminist concern together in order to identify the eco-feminist interpretation of thought and ideology embodied in the book by examining the eco-feminist elements that Atwood has employed, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Moreover, it highlights the ecofeminist critical approach in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Year of The Flood, which is basically a practical application of the key critical ecofeminist tenets. Throughout the novel, Atwood connects between women and nature and intertwines parallels between the exploitation of nature and women. In order to show how Atwood’s The Year of the Flood applies the ecofeminist concepts, the researcher discusses the origin of ecofeminism as a critical theory, the concept of ecofeminism, its main thoughts and ideas, and how Margaret Atwood has been affected by the ecofeminism thoughts while writing her novel The Year of The Flood. According to ecofeminists, the common link between women’s oppression and ecological degradation is domination. Ecofeminism is a critical theory that brings together political theory and practices into a single approach to explain and 211 transform the current system of domination and violence by focusing on the critique of patriarchy and the overexploitation of nature. Margaret Atwood’s reality in The Year of The Flood is reflected throughout the concept of patriarchal cultures, causing the collapse of society and degradation of the ecosystem. The ecofeminism movement emerged to avoid the imperfections of earlier waves of feminism and give proper consideration to the fact that women and the non-human environment are both oppressed. Based on the third volume of the trilogy MaddAddam, Chapter Four “Transhumanism and Posthumanism in the World of MAddAddam” argues how scientific progress can create another shape of humanism that differs from that instinct. It discusses how scientists instill many enhancements in humanism till humanity has transformed into another biological shape. After the pandemic has swept all humanity but a few, posthumans began to spread and inhabit the earth. It portrays a new brave world where a new posthuman is created. The trilogy ends up by imposing many questions, including: will the new ecosystem be rebuilt once again after the extinction of humanity and the collapse of the whole ecosystem? Is there a possibility of coexistence between original humanism and posthumanism? Will humans change their attitude toward the ecosystem and become keener on protecting the ecosystem or will remain arrogant, giving a deaf ear to the anger of the ecosystem? The term ”humanism” has taken many definitions and changed throughout the successive intellectual movements. Generally, the term focuses on human- beings and their freedom, autonomy, and progress. According to humanism, humanity is responsible for the enhancement and development of individuals, promotes the concept of equality for all human beings, democracy, free expression, progressive 212 policies, and human rights, and emphasizes the relationship between humans and the world. In the 20th century, humanist movements began to emerge with non-religious interests and centered on human reason and science rather than supernatural sources. Many humanists have claimed that humans are distinguished by their ingenuity in thinking from animals. One of the common traditional views around humanism is that humans respond to reason while animals respond only to stimuli and sensory feelings. Any viewpoint that distinguishes humans from other kinds of life is known as humanism. This is typically founded on the idea that humans have unique ability or quality that distinguishes them from all other forms of life, such as reason, intelligence, consciousness, rationality, autonomy, humor, etc. During the second decade of the 21st century, literary and cultural criticism has delved into a new world to explore other domains such as transhumanism, posthumanism, ecocriticism, and other related approaches. A wide variety of non-human creatures, objects, and forces are gradually emerging. Ecocriticism began to get interested in how literature can be dedicated to the preservation of other neglected objects surrounding humans. Non-human objects and creatures, ranging from animals to androids, are more prevalent in critical analyses. This complicates the human’s view of the cosmos by eliminating the individual subject and bringing down the comfortable categories through which they have interpreted their existence. Chapter Four “Transhumanism and Posthumanism in the World of MAddAddam” discusses the potential scenario of technology and scientific progress to liberate humans from their biological drawbacks by applying scientific and technological innovations, and how transhumanism seeks to liberate humans from the adverse effects of the existing humanist concepts by doubting their false 213 assumptions about humans, leading to trials of going beyond humanism throughout the MaddAddam. This chapter investigates how Margaret Atwood tries to follow the development of humanism that has been altered by technological enhancements while writing MaddAddam, the third volume of the trilogy. |