DeFalco, A orcid.org/0000-0003-2021-5714 (Cover date: Nov 2017) MaddAddam, Biocapitalism, and Affective Things. Contemporary Women's Writing, 11 (3). pp. 432-451. ISSN 1754-1476
Abstract
This essay considers the ethical dimensions of Atwood’s recent speculative fiction, the MaddAddam trilogy (2003–14), alongside a framework that Nikolas Rose, Sunder Rajan, and others term as biocapitalism. The trilogy imagines the social, cultural, affective, and ecological implications of the convergence of capitalism and biotechnology. In the MaddAddam trilogy, the fantasy of human independence and invulnerability central to neoliberalism and biocapitalism is depicted at its devastating endgame, in which the unbridled commodification of life has resulted in its near annihilation. Atwood’s novels suggest that we ignore interdependence, affectivity, and responsibility to our peril, evoking a posthumanist perspective in the dramatization of a catastrophic anthropocentrism that regards organic matter – the world’s flora and fauna, the human body’s cellular data – as marketable, utilitarian objects.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article published in Contemporary Women's Writing following peer review. The version of record: Amelia Defalco; MaddAddam, Biocapitalism, and Affective Things, Contemporary Women's Writing, Volume 11, Issue 3, 31 December 2017, Pages 432–451, is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vpx008 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of English (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Apr 2017 09:23 |
Last Modified: | 17 Mar 2020 13:01 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/cww/vpx008 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:114550 |