Apocalypse and After: A Study of Critical Speculation in Daya Dissanayake’s The Clone

The chapter studies Daya Dissayanake’s The Clone (2012) to highlight its elements of critical speculation. It indicates how this work of post-apocalyptic fiction represents the annihilation of humanity caused by rampant materialism, unwarranted ecocide, and uncontrolled technological advancements. It underscores Dissayanake’s critical speculation on how the two-legged Homo sapiens may become destroyers of themselves. I consider, whether and how, The Clone measures up to a Future History Sci-Fi narrated by Inee, a clone. I analyze how Inee recounts her journey through space, time and culture, exploring humanity’s self-destruction and the rise of a new order governed by Entity, an omnipotent machine. I point out how Inee’s encounter with primitive humanoid forms on a distant Earth-like planet raises questions about the scope of evolution and the cyclicity of life. I also examine how the novelist blends ancient myth with radical conjecture to construct a science fiction narrative of ideologized censure and ameliorative suggestion. Besides, I try to determine whether textual ambiguities and silences in The Clone, like the improbable emotionalism of a posthuman narrator, the problematic identification of the controlling Entity, and the conflict between prescriptivism and descriptivism, are contingent upon the doxa of a religious writer from the Global South.