Ecologies of Life: Genetics in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy

In this chapter, I discuss Margaret Atwood’s trilogy of novels Oryx and Crake (2004), The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013) in the context of a rethinking of life driven by anthropogenic climate change. I argue that the inter-species genetic aesthetic Atwood develops in the trilogy manifests both a new stage in the novel’s exploration of life and a specific response to the challenge of addressing in fiction the ecological crisis of the twenty-first century. I connect recent ecological genetics and the genomic mapping of the biosphere with the role of genetic science in posthumanist and ecocritical theory. I describe Atwood’s posthumanist ecologies of life as transgressive extrapolations of current genetic thinking that illuminate the political, ecological and ethical ramifications of the genetic connections between all life forms and of an increasing commodification and biopolitical manipulation of life itself. The novel’s aesthetic renegotiation of life ranges from its generic mixture of science fiction, utopia and dystopia, its self-reflexive contemplation of narrative and art in a genetically engineered future, to the metaphorical and literal creation of inter-species hybrids. The trilogy explores the implications of genetics for human society and for the future of all life on the planet.