Children of Oryx, Children of Crake, Children of Men: Redefining the Post/Transhuman in Margaret Atwood’s “ustopian” MaddAddam Trilogy

Authors

  • Eduardo Marks de Marques Universidade Federal de Pelotas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.25.3.133-146

Keywords:

transhumanism, “ustopia”, MaddAddam trilogy, post-apocalyptic fiction

Abstract

One of the main pillars of posthuman and transhuman thought is the use of technology as a means to ameliorate human life by helping overcome the flaws and limitations of the biological body. The effect of such trends has been central to the development of contemporary, third-turn dystopian novels in English, published in the past thirty or so years. However, one important aspect of such narratives is also their list of transgressive characteristics, distancing them from their modern, second-turn counterparts. The following article aims to discuss how transgressive the ideas of dystopia and transhumanism that form Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy are, essentially discussing whatever lies at the core of the human condition.

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Author Biography

Eduardo Marks de Marques, Universidade Federal de Pelotas

Professor de Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Coordenador do Colegiado da Licenciatura em Letras - Português e Inglês. Coordenador do PIBID – Letras-Língua Portuguesa. Centro de Letras e Comunicação - CLC. Universidade Federal de Pelotas – UFPel. Presidente da Associação de Professores Universitários de Inglês (ABRAPUI) – Biênio 2015-2016.

References

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ATWOOD, Margaret. MaddAddam. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

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MARKS DE MARQUES, Eduardo. “God is a cluster of neurons”: neo-posthumanism, theocide, theogony and anti-myths of origin in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake”. Gragoatá, Niterói, n. 35, p. 155-169, 2. sem. 2013.

MARKS DE MARQUES, Eduardo. I sing the body dystopic: utopia and posthuman corporeality in P.D. James’s The children of men. Ilha do Desterro, Florianópolis, n. 65, p.29-48, jul/dez 2013.

MOHR, Dunja M. Transgressive utopian dystopias: the postmodern reappearance of utopia in the disguise of dystopia”. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik (ZAA) , Leipzig, v. 55, n.1, p. 5-24, 2007.

WOLFE, Cary. What is posthumanism? Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

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Published

2016-04-28

How to Cite

Marques, E. M. de. (2016). Children of Oryx, Children of Crake, Children of Men: Redefining the Post/Transhuman in Margaret Atwood’s “ustopian” MaddAddam Trilogy. Aletria: Revista De Estudos De Literatura, 25(3), 133–146. https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.25.3.133-146