Lacan’s Drive and Genetic Posthumans: The Example of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

Abstract

In what follows, I argue for the essential relevance of biotechnology and genetic engineering in defining the discourse of the posthuman, and how their joint, or mutually implied, relationship can inform a reading of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003). Atwood’s novel provides a rich narrative context for considering the posthuman in relation to genetic engineering, specifically in relation to the titular character Crake’s actions as a gene-hacking scientist and his genetically engineered progeny, “the Children of Crake.” Beyond the novel’s unmistakable critique of the biotech industry, it also raises intriguing questions about the presumably posthuman status of the Crakers and the relevance of scientific—as opposed to humanist—discourse in how we (and they) understand their difference. These issues, furthermore, are inseparable from the novel’s central interest in desire , specifically Crake’s desire to eliminate desire —a theme that harks back to the early Christian mystics and resonates with Buddhism—but here re-contextualized by genetic engineering’s prospective capacity to alter the human species as such.