Disasters and Epidemic Literature: An Analytical Study of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake
Abstract
Literature is a representation of society. Literature reflects the cultural, socio-economic and scientific life of human beings. In literature, The science fiction is a genre of fiction that encompasses imaginative concepts like futuristic scientific-technological settings, faster than light. According to the post-apocalyptic era the entire cosmos is on the periphery of obliteration, and human beings have been completely eradicated and substituted for an innovative, and bioengineered. The epidemic began to spread in a Chinese city in early 2020, no one anticipated the scope of the epidemic that will affect the whole world in a very short period. From Wuhan (China) to New York (USA) through Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe. An outbreak of epidemic Covid-19 caused by a novel acute respiratory syndrome of corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV) occurred in China. The outbreak was declared as a public health emergenc through out the world in different phases. In the period of epidemic, literature plays a vital role and apocalyptic literature has shown the unforeseen disastrous. But human hardly stopped their behaviour and attitude towards the world and their responsibility. The present research paper is an analysis on Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Oryx’ and ‘Crake’ in the light of the COVID-19 epidemic and pointed a convincing glimpse of the future. These two novels explore an apocalypse triggered by biotechnological and chemical experiments that destroy the rhythm of nature and produces unforeseen disasters and epidemics and create the questions about the moral and ethical responsibilities of the scientists when they begin deploying the natural processes for material gains. In the novel the future of scientific development of early 21st century are effectively depicted by her.
