The Possibilities and Pitfalls of the Literal Posthuman: Atwood's Paradice Project

The concept of the posthuman is a fascination within contemporary culture, with technological and scientific advances giving way to questions about the type of subject that will inherit and inhabit the consequences of these advances. Through her depiction of the Crakers within her MaddAddam trilogy, Margaret Atwood utilises speculative fiction as a site of critical engagement to interrogate the social consequences of projected technologies, particularly genetic engineering and biotechnology . In Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction (2007), Sheryll Vint argues that these technologies have put existing boundaries between human, machine and animal into crisis, with changes to the body being one of the spaces where ‘the posthuman may be literally made.’ As one such literal creation of a posthuman body, the Crakers address some of the more urgent questions posed by posthumanism and the possibilities of changing embodiment. Considering how these bodies are constructed and imagined demonstrates how Atwood initially positions the Crakers merely as the logical conclusion of an unquestioned corporate and commercial ethos; however, the ending of the MaddAddam novel, which marks the ending of the MaddAddam trilogy, reveals the Crakers as a symbol of hope for the future of post/humankind.