論瑪格麗特‧愛特伍《瘋狂亞當三部曲》中新自由主義治理論述，裸命，生命-形式及無身份 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士論文. 指導教授：邱彥彬博士 Advisor：Yen-Bin Chiou. 論瑪格麗特‧愛特伍《瘋狂亞當三部曲》中新自由主義治理論述，裸命，生命形式及無身份. 政治大. Neo-liberal Governmentality：Bare Life, Form-of-Life and (Non)-identity in. 立. Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. 研究生：鄧安廷 Name：An-Ting Teng 中華民國：2017 年 2 月 February 2017. v.

(2) Neo-liberal Governmentality：Bare Life, Form-of-Life and (Non)-identity in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. 立. 治Thesis 政A Master 大 Presented to. ‧ 國. 學. Department of English,. National Chengchi University. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. By An-Ting Teng February 2017.

(3) Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to express my sincere gratitude for my thesis advisor Prof. Chiou. Thank you for giving me the most precise advises and guidance when I lose in the texts and theories. You never hesitate to give me encouragement that enables me to complete this work. Thanks also go to Harry Chen. Thank you for being my listener and telling me. 政治大. that you will always be there if I need. And, I extend my warmest thanks to Coco. 立. Chen. I will miss the days when we studied together. During the period of time,. ‧ 國. 學. laughs never cease because of you.. Thanks go to my dear family. Words cannot tell how much gratitude I have for. ‧. your love and patience. I cannot get through the hard time without your support. This. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. paper is also for you, grandma. I hope that I am still the girl who makes you proud.. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(4) Table of Contents. Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... .……..iii Chinese Abstract…………………………………………………………………..….v English Abstract .......................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….1 Neoliberal governmentality……………………………………….....7. 政治大 The Gardeners’ 立 revolution: form-of-life.…...…………………........11. Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life”..........................................9. ‧ 國. 學. The politics of (non)identify………………………………………. 12. 2. Neoliberal governmentality………………..……………………………….15. ‧. Human capital…………………...…………………………………18. sit. y. Nat. Alienation and social control………..……………………………..26. n. al. er. io. Neoliberal empire…………………..……………………………....31. i n U. v. 3. Bare life………………………………………………………………..…...38. Ch. engchi. Immigrants and refugees………………………………………...…46 Paradigm of concentration camp………………………………..….49 The Second World War and energy crisis…………....…………….53 4. Form-of-life and politics of (non)-identity………………………………....58 The Gardeners’ way of living in simplicity………………………...61 The politics of (non)-identity………………………………………69 5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………....78. iv.

(5) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文提要. 論文名稱: 論瑪格麗特‧愛特伍《瘋狂亞當三部曲》中新自由主義治理論述，裸命，生命-形式及無身份指導教授：邱彥彬. 立. 研究生：鄧安廷. ‧ 國. 學. 論文提要內容：. 政治大. 瑪格麗特‧愛特伍的《瘋狂亞當三部曲》描繪了當代讀者所熟悉的世界:. ‧. 一個受新自由主義浪潮席捲的社會。當政府權力被龐大財團架空，自由國家的. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 民主核心價值早已崩解。. 本篇論文的論點延伸自 Chris Vials 的文章，並試圖以新自由主義統治論述. al. n. v i n Ch 來解釋小說中民主與極權融為一體的情況。第一章解釋新經濟思維使個人與社 engchi U 會產生疏離，以統治極端分化的社會階層。第二章則闡述小說中的國家已陷入例外狀態，法律受到懸置，而圍牆的設立強化了排除生命的機制並且產生 “裸命”。在最後的章節將探討上帝的園丁會 “生命-形式” 的革命以及《瘋狂亞當》的主角澤伯所展現的 “無身份” 抵抗的可能性。如同書中角色，身處於當代的讀者正受到這股 “未來的浪潮” 推進向前卻同時又受到過去的夢靨所困。世界大戰、猶太人集中營不只是已過去的歷史事實，他們以不同形式再現且縈繞不去。如何撿拾過去的傷痛與錯誤，承接死去 v.

(6) 之人的意志正是我們必須肩負的責任。. 政治大. 關鍵字：《瘋狂亞當三部曲》、瑪格麗特‧愛特伍、新自由主義、治理性、裸命、生命-形式、無身份。. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. vi. i n U. v.

(7) Abstract In Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, the author imagines a near future that is too familiar for the reader who live in the contemporary period, a neoliberal society. Through the depiction of a hollowed-out nation replaced by a giant consortium, she lays bare a truth that democracy is going to collapse. Based on Chris Vials’ article, “Margaret Atwood’s Dystopic Fiction and the. 政治大. Contradictions of Neoliberal Freedom,” this thesis furthers to elaborate the integration. 立. of democratic regime and totalitarianism by discourse of neoliberal governance: the. ‧ 國. 學. neoliberal rationality alienates individuals, uniting the divided social stratifications. In the second part, I suggest that the nation falls into an anarchy since it has already. ‧. entered into a state of exception, which gives rise to “bare life.” The exclusion. y. Nat. io. sit. mechanism is represented by the construction of “the Walls.” The third chapter aims. n. al. er. to discuss the possibility of resisting the new form of sovereign power in practice of. i n U. v. the God’s Gardeners about how to live “form-of-life” and politics of “(non)-identity”. Ch. engchi. deployed by Zeb, the protagonist of MaddAddam.. Like the characters, we stand in the intersection of the “Wave of future” and the recurring nightmare in the past. Global wars and concentration camp are not only historical facts but recurring events. It is our responsibility to recall the memory, remember the pain, and inherit the will of the dead.. Keywords: MaddAddam trilogy, Margaret Atwood, neoliberalism, governmentality, bare life, form-of-life, (non)-identity.. vii.

(8) Introduction Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy begins by a narrator, Jimmy/ the Snowman who wanders around wasteland of the “new” United States. He leads the green-eyed children of Crake after the apocalypse caused by Crake’s pills of Blysspluss. The story depicts a world immersed with grotesque hybrid creatures, clones and pollution, generating discussion from various dimensions and theories such as ecology, feminism, post-humanism and post-modernism. The depiction of American scenes has a strong connection with the current social issues. This thesis explores neoliberal discourse and its reverse side. Also, I follow Agamben’s. 治政大 philosophy to look for new capacity for interpretation. 立. Oryx and Crake depicts the class hierarchies with division of the walled. ‧ 國. 學. Compounders living in the northern America and the contagious, chaotic, “free” city. ‧. town, the Pleeblands. The Compounds are safer and cleaner places for the upper. sit. y. Nat. echelons: the scientists, engineers and their relatives. To protect the elites from the. io. er. dangerous pleebians, the corporations obstruct the outsiders by the construction of Walls. Through Jimmy’s perspective, Oryx and Crake introduces the privileged but. al. n. v i n C hIn contrast, The Year enclosed life in the Compounds. e n g c h i U of the Flood demonstrates the appearance of a lower social stratification, the pleeblands, with two viewpoints from Toby and Ren. They are members of the God’s Gardeners, a religious cult carrying non-violent revolution against the CorpSeCorps. The two protagonists under the influence of the Gardeners go to different ways: Toby receives assistance and power from the Gardener’s creed, which gradually remodels her ego to change her life; Ren abandons it and transforms into a Compounder after being taken away by her mother Lucerne. Compared with the former novels, the finale is often posed as a supplement. MaddAddam depicts what happened between leader of the eco-terrorist group,. 1.

(9) MaddAddam Zeb and his half-brother Adam, leader of the God’s Gardener, a pacifist and theologian. The story ends at integration of the post-apocalypse survivors and the Crakers: Toby replaces Jimmy’s role to tell stories to Crakers; some female survivors giving birth to Craker’s children signifies an integration of the old and new human beings. Different from the traditional science fictions, Atwood’s “speculative novels” have its special narrative technique, which links context of history, culture and politics in the contemporary epoch. She addresses her concern to contemporary social issues. 治政 change and the man-made catastrophe. The waterless flood,大 the vital “Red Death 立 through the episode of ecological damages, extinction of species, severe climate. made by Crake, has something to do with the outbreak of disease, SARS, in 2002.. ‧ 國. 學. WHO proclaimed the high mortality rates of Ebola in 2013, the same year when the. ‧. finale MaddAddam was published. However, the representation of problematic. sit. y. Nat. biotechnology meets harsh criticism. Anthony Griffiths lambastes Atwood’s. io. er. anti-technology stance. He criticizes that the description of gene-engineering and. al. biology is formed from her reading of the popular media, and the negative description. n. v i n Ch of genetic modification causes misunderstanding e n g cof hthei realUscientific problems which really need attention (1-2). However, it is meaningless to criticize whether the fiction presents “truth of science” or not since she always talks about people rather than technology only (Atwood, Interview). Grayson Cooke in “Technics and the human at zero-hour: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake” has addressed that it is human who should take responsibility for the apocalypse since “Technology is ‘neutral’; guns don’t kill people—people do” (65). Who kills the people? Who should take responsibility of the apocalypse? Crake is undoubtedly the murder. He has made a conclusion that mankind is the. 2.

(10) problem: over population is a disease. However, whether Crake is the cause of the end of humans? In addition, we should notice why Crake attributes all problems to population explosion, which appears to be too simple for a scientist, giving up other possible resolution but inventing the bio-terrorist project. Crake’s acts trigger discussions. Many critics try to explore the motivation. Labudová regards Crake as a cruel, cold and blooded person who has “emotional detachment” that gives rise to his lack of sympathy on human beings (138). Howells contends that Crake may have suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome and Atwood implies it in the name of Crake’s college Watson Crick Institute, the nickname of the. 治政大 that Crake takes the Asperger’s U (Margaret Atwood 178). Howells suggests 立. cataclysm as an extensive game outside the chess board, the game of “Blood and. ‧ 國. 學. Roses” and of “Extinctathon” (176). Ingersoll even calls Crake “the Father of all Mad. ‧. Scientists, Frankenstein” (119). However, attributing the apocalypse to the character. sit. y. Nat. flaws is a simplification. When looking into the cause of the becoming of bio-terrorist,. io. er. it is necessary to examine the issue in aspect of power structure. It is the problematic. al. society that grows the monster.. n. v i n C corporate the social hierarchy and dominance of Most critics have noticed h e n gpower, chi U. the privileged Compounders. Huang’s thesis Reading Biotechnology: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake examines that the process of the biotechnology is manipulated by the global market and power of transnational corporations. Because of the trend of global market, the Third World’s natural resources are extremely exploited and collected to the western developed countries. Recently the comments turn the light on power discourse. In The Regime of Bio-power: Resistance and the Care of the Self in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, the thesis rests upon Foucault’s idea of biopower. Huang argues that the class. 3.

(11) hierarchies are caused by operation of disciplinary power by schools, institutions, companies etc. producing docile body. The power working conjunction with scientific knowledge produces docile body and puts life into consideration for governance. However, the way of governance with respect to neoliberalism discourse has not received enough attention. One thing should be noted is that in spite of conducting disciplinary power, the techniques of governance have become more “economic” and “democratic.” Lemke has addressed that governmental techniques operate not by exerting suppression but by “powers of freedom” (“Foucault, Politics and Failure” 40).. 治政大governance. Before It is not the first time Atwood voices her concern for the 立. going into the textual analysis, I would like to look into the distinction of the trilogy. ‧ 國. 學. and The Handmaid’s Tale. The Handmaid’s Tale is Atwood’s most popular novel since. ‧. its publication in 1985. It portrays a theocracy with decreased civil rights to criticize. sit. y. Nat. the “extreme right-wing political movements” (Howells, Margaret Atwood 94). On. io. er. the other hand, the trilogy depicts no traces of omnipresent government but the. al. overwhelming corporate power. It is interesting that Atwood changes the setting from. n. v i n This may give us clues to figure out the a theocracy to a democratic regime.C h epoint ngchi U author’s reflection on the current issues.. From The Handmaid’s Tale to MaddAddam trilogy The correlation between Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and MaddAddam Trilogy is rather significant. They both envision a near future of the United States. But the setting shifts from a totalitarian dictatorship to the democratic regime signifying Atwood’s change of her reflection on social issue and political events from 1985 (when The Handmaid’s Tale was published) to 2003 (when Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood, MaddAddam was published later in 2009,. 4.

(12) 2013). Howells has suggested that in many aspects Oryx and Crake should be viewed as a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale: the severe environmental pollution, which depopulates the totalitarian state in the earlier novel, has escalated into worldwide climate destruction in the later; “the late twentieth-century western trend towards mass consumerism, which Gilead tried to reverse” by Christian moral values and religious doctrines, goes to “consumerist decadence in a high-tech world” (“Margaret Atwood’s Dystopian Visions” 161). Apparently, the satirical critique of the right-wing and feminist protest in early 1980s shifts to the critique of consumerist society. If The Handmaid’s Tale delineates a despotic government—Gilead—after a. 治政 MaddAddam trilogy requires us to military coup wiping out the democratic apparatus,大立. imagine a liberal state infused with the capitalist power. Gilead is subverted by an. ‧ 國. 學. army, which assassins the president and sabotages the Congress, declaring a state of. ‧. emergency in order to defend the “Islamic fanatics” (Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. sit. y. Nat. 174). The military force suspends the Constitution to take people’s individual freedom. io. er. and replace it by a code of social hierarchy: Commanders, Wives, Aunts, Handmaids,. al. Guardians, Econowives, and Unwomen. Among them, the Eyes spy everything for the. n. v i n government and anyone canC beh one of the Eyes: “The e n g c h i U Eyes of God run over all the. earth” (193). This power structure is similar to Foucault’s idea of “panopticism.” The mechanism of Panopticon is an apparatus and exercise of power, “dissociating the see/being seen dyad (Discipline and Punish 202). That is to say, the individuals are seen without seeing, and they are always supervised by the whole society. The Handmaid’s Tale presents a disciplinary power with strict technique of surveillance. On the contrary, the trilogy begins at a democratic regime. The country has freedom of election, but it has already lost core of democratic value. Democracy has been neutralized masking the increasing corporate power. The trilogy manifests reverse. 5.

(13) side of neoliberalism in the twenty-first century with its outcome—the economic inequality: “On the third hand (for there’s always a hidden hand), the democratic form of government we have extolled and promoted in the West for centuries is being undermined from within by super-surveillance technologies and the power of corporate money. When 1% of the population controls over 80% of the wealth, you have a top-heavy social pyramid that’s inherently unstable.” (Atwood, “Why I wrote. 治政大 intention to In the spectrum of economic-political, it is easy to notice Atwood’s 立 MaddAddam”). criticize neoliberalism through her eerily precise prediction to the world. The critique. ‧ 國. 學. of corporate power resonates with the protest on September 17, 2011, Occupy. ‧. Wall-Street movement, the anti-corporation force gave rise to fight against the wave. sit. y. Nat. of neoliberalism. This event rose for the extreme inequality and wealth distribution in. io. er. America. Between 1980 and 2008, the total income has been driven and accrued by. al. the minor households share, making the United States one of the most unequal. n. v i n C h by the congressional countries in the world. A previous report e n g c h i U committee discovered that “the after-tax income of the richest 0.1% rose 400% between 1979 and 2005”. (Patankar and Kadirgamar). The fiction appears to reflect the situation of inequality and increasing class division in the United States. In “Margaret Atwood’s Dystopic Fiction and the Contradictions of Neoliberal freedom,” Chris Vials has pointed out that Atwood illustrates an “anti-neoliberalism” vision: consumer capitalism destroys liberal freedoms without the mediation of a centralized state (238-39). Individual freedom guaranteed by neoliberalism is ultimately collapsed by the Corps-reigned regime since “tyranny inherent in its very. 6.

(14) utopian idea of freedom” (237). The Corps crosses over the self-regulating market and gradually takes over an entire state. Besides, he uses Agamben’s famous idea of “bare life” to explain the operation of class hierarchies. The Compounders sacrifice personal freedom for privileges to avoid falling into “the lowest depths of bare life (247). Nevertheless, the article has not explained the relation between the two concepts: how does the tyranny of economy generate exclusive mechanism? Firstly, I look into discourse with respect to neoliberal governmentality: how do the people have been governed and how do they respond to the grid of. 治政大 this thesis aims to gauge as a new form of governance? Extending Vial’s argument, 立. governmentality? How does the neoliberal notion exercise dominance and alienation. cause of the hierarchy in aspect of neoliberal governmentality conducting alienation. ‧ 國. 學. by logic of economy. In the first chapter I would like to follow Foucault’s arguments. sit. y. Nat. Neoliberal governmentality. ‧. in The Birth of Biopolitics to examine the trilogy.. io. er. The existence of New New York signifies not only outcome of global warming but dominance of oligarchy of consortiums. Neoliberal implementation’s privatization. al. n. v i n and deregulation give rise toC thehunconstrained corporations that encroach on all engchi U. businesses including military forces, sex trade, academic institutions, food industry. The result is the resurrection of the elites and class hierarchies. David Harvey addresses that neoliberalist’s belief in competition mechanism in effect conceals economical elite’s intention of accumulation by dispossession (A Brief History of Neoliberalism 36-37). Here, we need to ask the following questions: how do the dwellers of New New York conduct themselves? Why do the class hierarchies return to the neoliberal society? In the lecture Security, Territory, Population, Foucault elaborates the genealogy. 7.

(15) of governance from middle ages to the economic rationality exerted in seventeen and eighteen century, the art of governmentality: how do the practices of government govern people and how do people govern themselves (88)? His next lecture “The birth of biopolitics” proceeds to explain his idea about governmentality in terms of liberalism and neoliberalism. Thomas Lemke points out that Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics suggests not economic or political argument but an “art of governing people” (Biopolitics: An Advanced Introduction 45). Most importantly, Foucault’s biopolitical discourse and analysis on governmentality have changed direction to the critique of neoliberalism. It has “moved to the forefront of discourses on both. 治政大the global politics of the contemporary domestic politics of Western democracies and 立. neoliberal ‘Empire’” (Prozorov 103). Distinct from the discipline power, the mode of. ‧ 國. 學. governmentality no longer regulates through the institution such as factory, school,. ‧. university, or hospital as the disciplinary power does. Instead, the workplace has been. sit. y. Nat. shifted from factory to office. It is corporation that has turned into the new icon in the. io. er. postmodern age: “in a society of control, the corporation has replaced the factory, and the corporation is a spirit, a gas….We have passed from one animal to the other, from. al. n. v i n Ch the mole to the serpent” (Deleuze, “Postscripts i U of Control” 4-5). e n goncthehSocieties. Foucault’s governmentality proposes a governing way in which “one conducts. the conduct of men” (The Birth of Biopolitics 186). When the government has reduced to the minimum level, the individuals govern themselves. It is a more perfect paradigm of “governance without governing” by improvement of self-enterprise. Nowadays, this neoliberalism has become a common sense merged with individual freedom. Neoliberal freedom goes hand in hand with the global capitalism through promulgation of media, institutions, and schools. The collective individuals conceptualize and also apply the neoliberal rationality to space of social interaction.. 8.

(16) But the conflation of economy and social interaction causes alienation between mankind and in the labors themselves. The culture of Compounders such as marriage, education, human relation entails economic consideration. Furthermore, I borrow Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s work, Empire to interpret the mafia-like corporations in conjunction with the hollowed-out nation, New New York. When the state is possessed by neoliberal power as a de-centering neoliberal state, it puts individual freedom into crisis. Under proliferation of global capitalism working in conjunction with the. 治政 overrides other social needs like longevity, welfare 大 and health care. Once nation 立. hollowed-centered state, the primacy of economy obscures political technique and. power is replaced by corporations, the nation has gone into state of exception in. ‧ 國. 學. which the suspension of law stripes off human right without being taken as crimes.. ‧. Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life”:. sit. y. Nat. This time Atwood focuses on not the repressed people but the figures like. io. er. wage-slaves, sexual workers, refugees, and illegal immigrants who directly suffer. al. from outcome of global market. Oryx, a sexual worker, is sold from an unknown. n. v i n Cdifferent places; Toby is used to be a wage slave country of the Third World to heng chi U. working in SecretBurger and is about to die by her boss’ sexual violence; Amanda sneaks into the pleeblands before the companies build up the Walls. These people are the form of life stripped off human rights encountering permanent threat of death. They represent figure of naked life/ bare life, a form of life living in a state of inclusive exclusion” (Homo Sacer 7). According to Agamben’s famous work Homo Sacer, he extends Foucault’s concern for biopower to criticize the western regimes with his ontological philosophical politics that “the production of a biopolitical body is the original. 9.

(17) activity of sovereign power” (6). Making analogies between the paradigm of Jews camp in the World War II with democratic countries in the twentieth century, Agamben claims that the form of life has risk of being killed. Bare life is a form of life which is essentially excluded, banished, and exiled from the community as a hidden foundation of sovereign power. Agamben’s argument breaks the universal thinking that the people are born with right. Most of all, he accentuates that the exclusion never goes to an end. It regains energy in the democratic regimes of twentieth century.. 治政大it leads to sovereign market is not bound to enhance individual freedom. Instead, 立. The authoritarian CorpSeCorps, privatization and monopolization reveal that free. power, which reappears through machine of exclusion. Such exclusion mechanism is. ‧ 國. 學. represented by a symbol of the “Walls” in Atwood’s novels. The Wall which is. ‧. presented in The Handmaid’s Tale with red bricks and “searchlights,” “barbed wire,”. sit. y. Nat. “hooks” attached to the construction signifies barbarity of tyranny, displaying the. io. er. absolute power by hanging bodies (165-66). Authoritarian power needs to show the. al. corpse and process of execution in front of the public. On the contrary, in the trilogy. n. v i n C hof exclusion. The two the symbol transforms into a paradigm e n g c h i U Walls exert the exclusive mechanism: one for separating the contagious Pleeblands from the. Compounds, and one for obstructing illegal immigrants and refugees, who are expelled to an infernal-like place called “the Exfernal,” a place more like slum than the Pleeblands. They are non-citizen people, deprived of the basic standard of human rights and abandoned in a state of suspension in law. The existence of bare life emanates the resurrection of sovereign power. Covered by democratic value which has conflated with freedom of market, sovereign power transforms into a monstrous hybrid of totalitarian-liberal regime.. 10.

(18) Yet, whom do the Compounders really obstruct from? They believe that the lurking danger of the community comes from fanatical terrorists who hide in the cover of identities as foreigners and refugees. In effect, for the Compounders, there is no difference between them. The depiction precisely resembles the current situation: the European migrant crisis began in 2015, German President, Angela Merkel said that German would generously take in the refugees who steps into the border. This proclamation has raised concern for the refugees who may come from Syria and Iraq to infiltrate to the country. In November 13, 2015, Paris encountered ISIS suicide. 治政大 countries that escalate the ISIS has posed an intensifying threat toward the western 立. bombers and mass shootings. About 130 people died from the terror attack. Currently,. refugee’s situation at the same time. Donald Trump, the president of the United States,. ‧ 國. 學. is going to fulfill his first campaign promise—building the Mexico Walls, an. ‧. “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall,” to block off. sit. y. Nat. the Latinos. In addition, his executive order suspending refugee resettlement and. io. er. blocking Muslims from entering the United States is now happening. It is the public’s and governments’ fear that the refugees are ‘masking the movement’ of terrorists. al. n. v i n Cobfuscates (Yuhas). The fear to terrorism distinction of refugees and terrorists. h e n g the chi U However, can we find liberating power against the transformative totalitarian authority in conjunction with democracy? Whether we can figure out a possibility of emancipating from this form of life, an alienated life? The answer is yes. “There must be a resistance,” Atwood narrates through Offred, “…I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow” (The Handmaid’s Tale 105). Although the corporations rule the country as a new form of tyranny, there are resistances such as gangs or religious, ecological cults jostling around the Pleebland’s area. The Gardeners’ revolution: “form-of-life”. 11.

(19) Basically, this dissertation’s third part is divided into two parts in order of the novels. First, The Year of the Flood presents the Gardener’s way of living poverty exerting political effects and power against the alienation and desire provoked by consumer society. More specifically, the Gardeners conduct an ethos of regarding life not as an asset but a common life. In The Highest Poverty, Agamben derives the idea from the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era—monastic rules—to seek potential alternatives for the modern society. That is, the “form-of-life,” a being of life links closely to its form and is inseparable from it: “how to think a form of life, a. 治政大 (xiii). This form of world that would never be substantiated into an appropriation” 立. human life entirely removed from the grasp of the law and a use of bodies and of the. revolution has not been discussed yet.. ‧ 國. 學. On the other hand, another resistance lies in the character Zeb, the protagonist of. ‧. MaddAddam. Atwood has contended that in the translation of German publication, the. sit. y. Nat. story has been titled “The Story of Zeb” (Atwood, “Why I Wrote MaddAddam”). It. io. er. manifests how important the character is in the finale. But the story of Zeb has not. al. receive enough attention. More than completing the unfinished end, Atwood in the. n. v i n C h with the anonymous finale suggests another form of resistance e n g c h i U feature, a character who not only collides with the authority but also evades the trap of identitarian structure. The politics of “(non)-identify” Zeb acts as an enigma: an accomplished hacker and also a leader of the anti-Corps group, MaddAddam. Instead of confronting his father and the. CorpSeCorps directly, he hides traces and incarnates into roles rather than himself. Through this mysterious protagonist, Atwood seems to seek a route to freedom: how to live with the capital order and how to evade the trap set by the authority.. 12.

(20) Is it not one of the fundamental traits of our society, after all, that destiny takes the form of a relation with power, of a struggle with or against it? Indeed, the most intense point of a life, the point where its energy is concentrated, is where it comes up against power, struggles with it, attempts to use its forces and to evade its traps.” (Foucault, “Lives of Infamous Men” 161-62) I try to elaborate the power of evasion, an individual resistance. I propose that Zeb is an anonymous life, a (non)-identity subject that not only negates detection and care. 治政大 skills rest upon a sense of multiple identity as the postmodern way, Zeb’s survival 立 from the authority but goes beyond the identitarain structure. More than playing. negativity, a refusal to the care from the authority. Zeb’s flight of identity means not. ‧ 國. 學. only to escape from the author’s capture but to construct the (im)potentiality beyond. ‧. identity.. sit. y. Nat. Overview of the chapters. io. er. Overall, I will put emphasis on the neoliberal governmentality. I will elaborate. al. the background and progress of the security company, which expands its power to. n. v i n C hAnd, I will explainUthe cause of class hierarchy replace the role of government. engchi. returning to the democratic regime. The neoliberal notion enables individuals to conduct themselves with capitalist rationalities. However, the economic rationalities alienate the individuals to the whole state and achieve a control of society. Ultimately, the corporate power and the whole social body construct a de-centering empire. If the authority protects the economic development at expense of democratic value, the sovereign power may have returned in a new form. Hence the whole state has entered into a state of exception. The third chapter aims to discuss the people who suffer from the mechanism of exclusion. The minority has been stripped off human. 13.

(21) rights for shortage of citizenship. Furthermore, I would like to discuss the paradigm of camp and the element of the Second World War in the text. They are not only historical fact but recurrent events reappearing in the modern time. The fourth chapter aims to suggest the resistance by form-of-life and (non)-identity politics. The God’s Gardener’s way of living simplicity rises to deal with the alienation and biopolitical power by technique of practicing “form-of-life.” I will take instance from the character, Toby, to explain this revolution in quotidian life. The second part will discuss the individual resistance to the identitarian system with Zeb’s politics of evasion. Both the two methods mean to refuse living as the state of inclusive exclusion of naked life.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 14. i n U. v.

(22) Chapter Two: The Neoliberal Governmentality in MaddAddam Trilogy Some critics have already pointed out the anarchy of corporate power. Pilar Somacarrera has argued that Oryx and Crake presents the author’s “nightmares about abuses of power culminate” and suggested that in this dystopian world “where power no longer centers in the state…but is spread through the social system via the corporate power of global capitalism” (55). Also, Coral Ann Howells refers to Atwood’s concern for nation identity within the postmodern world of “transnational economic relations” (Margaret Atwood 10). Bio-engineering companies exploit. 治政大 Farms and HelthWyzer, bioengineered companies, like RejoovenEssense, OrganInc 立 resources from nature, causing damages to the environment. The multinational. reign over market, media and the military. The commercial activities completely. ‧ 國. 學. occupy all human activities with ads, brands and slogans of products. When we read. ‧. the tale of Jimmy/ the Snowman, it is not difficult to see the commercial logos. sit. y. Nat. overflowing in the narration like Happicuppa coffee, So Yummie Ice Cream,. io. er. ChickieNobs Bucket O’Nubbins and SoyOBoy burgers. Moreover, the corporations. al. advocate benefits from deregulation. These biotechnology companies have various. n. v i n Cswallowing enterprises as big consortium, companies and public institutions for h e n g csmall hi U expansion and monopoly. For instance, NooSkin is affiliated with HelthWyzer, which entails more enterprises than OrganInc Farms including two shopping malls, hospital, three dance clubs, golf course, HelthWyzer Public school and So Yummie Ice Cream. Nothing is not under privatization. Every available resources in fields of culture, education, sex trade, public welfare and entertainment army become personal assets. The free market enhances corporate power. Crake reveals that his father may be murdered for discovering the HelthWyzer’s dark secret: with help of private hospitals and health services, the companies create viruses and curing pills, pushing pleeblands. 15.

(23) into a “buying and selling, plus a lot of criminal activity” (197). The biotechnology companies create virus and distribute them through their private hospital randomly, and then, the patient spends money to cure the disease until the money runs out (Oryx and Crake 211). The overwhelming corporate power reigns over every respect of people’s life for “maximum profit” (211). In this respective, when corporate power has swollen to transgress its economic role over the role of government, it undermines the state power. The rise of corporate power is followed by absence of the state interventionalism.. 治政大 and influences CorpSeCorps. The CorpSeCorps expands its scale of employees 立. The governmental function is weakening and replaced by the security company, the. rapidly from a little company to a nation-like organization firstly through taking over. ‧ 國. 學. law enforcement administration. Hence the company is able to scrutinize the gate. ‧. between compounds and pleeblands. The Corps men take people’s weapons for safety. sit. y. Nat. and undertakes surveillance to avoid crimes and terrorists outside the walls. They. io. er. make huge profits by intervening in commercial wars and intense competition of. al. headhunting, genetic modification and technology between corporations. To put it. n. v i n Cwith to neoliberalism: the weakened short, what we see are characteristics h erespect ngchi U. nation, the fierce competition between bioengineering companies, privatization of asset and unlimited deregulation for global market, that the scenario obviously suggests an outcome of neoliberal implementation. Neoliberalism rose from the backlash occurred against economic intervention and regulation of the sovereign government or welfare state after the World War II. After 1970s, the interventionists are superseded by economic deregulation. After collapse of Soviet barriers, the irresistible trend of globalization of economic liberalism breaks nation’s constraint one by one. Ronald Reagan and Margaret. 16.

(24) Thatcher both advocated reduction of trade barriers and government spending in order to stimulate economy and private sector for open market. Reagan remarked that “Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.” A neoliberal economist Jean-Jacques Rosa says that “‘bulimic states’ were to blame for the illness afflicting Western economies” (Behrent 35). Under the anti-state atmosphere, the neoliberal economists proclaim that protection of private enterprises efficiently regulates the authoritarian nation-state power since it simultaneously confirms individual freedom. Through widespread dissemination for globalization and. 治政 competition mechanics of flexible market, by which大 redistribution of wealth and 立. democratic principles, sovereign power withers. Moreover, neoliberals believe in. resources is achieved to deal with poverty and inequality since free market is. ‧ 國. 學. construed as a reflection of democratic freedom (36). Therefore, neoliberalism has. ‧. become utopian notion as an unstoppable trend over the globe. Its central idea,. y. sit. io. er. government.. Nat. economic rationalities, now has saturated into individuals, social body and even. al. The neoliberal rationalities have been applied to every domain of human. n. v i n C hpolicies, culture units activities. People do not manage e n g c h i U and social interactions without taking account of economy. In this perspective Foucault has pointed out the trend of economic rationality has already permeated to the “non-economic” terrain: The generalization of the economic form of the market beyond monetary exchanges functions in American neo-liberalism as a principle of intelligibility and a principle of decipherment of social relationships and individual behavior. This means that analysis in terms of the market economy or, in other words, of supply and demand, can function as a schema which is applicable to non-economic domains.. 17.

(25) (The Birth of Biopolitics 243) Foucault argues that the analysis has to entail economic and social terrains since neoliberalism has greatly influenced individual’s act. Neoliberal rationality greatly changes social relationship and configuration. In other words, the economic rationality not only holds the reins within market but reconstitutes social stratification. Neoliberal rationality has crossed over market sphere and turns into a new hegemonic ideology over the planet. As Oryx says, “everything has a price” (Oryx and Crake 126, 139). What need our attention is how does the social body is “analyzed in terms of. 治政大 244). When investment, capital costs, and profits” (The Birth of Biopolitics 立. commodification puts everything into financial statements, numbers, analysis, and. ‧ 國. 學. charts, it certainly applies to the mechanism of labor markets. The basic unit of social. ‧. body is human capital, which means to enhance value of labor power for plus of. sit. y. Nat. social production. One thing we need to note is that how does the notion of human. al. n. Human capital. io. governing?. er. capital operate in art of governance? How does the authority govern without. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. According to Foucault, neoliberalism is essentially characterized by the transformation of viewpoint in the idea of labor power. In the eighteen to nineteen century, workers were disciplined and stabilized in their identities and subjectivity through regulation in fixed place like factory. However, Foucault argues that the labor in twentieth century is no longer a passive, manipulated or collective object but an active, potential and mobile subject (The Birth of Biopolitics 223). Labor power entails not only physical labor but also labor’s income, skills and ability as a synthesis of mobile capital. The worker is not taken as part of a machine, “but a machine which. 18.

(26) cannot be separated from the worker himself,” that is, “an earnings stream” (224). In other words, labor power is investable enterprise, an asset of capital assemblage, and “result of investments in the corresponding stimuli: nutrition, education, training and also love, affection, etc” (Lemke, “‘the Birth of Bio-politics’” 200, 199). Neoliberalism characteristically applies economic form to social sphere, putting idea of enterprise into every brains of individuals. They are enterprise of individual. Therefore, the policy about labor power is a pivotal aspect of economic circulation so as to create an open market for flexibility of labor power.. 治政大individuals. Being driven by the competition. The economy automatically disciplines 立 Neoliberalism encourages individual to strengthen the ego so as to survive in. bio-products market, the bio-corporations require more intelligent scientists to appeal. ‧ 國. 學. to the increasing demand. The corporations make improvement of human capital a. ‧. general consensus through dissemination in their private schools, universities, media. sit. y. Nat. and institutions in order to create more human sources. Jimmy’s high school asks. io. er. students to join a compulsory course called the “life skill courses.” Life skill courses include “job application, compound, family heredity research, negotiating your own. al. n. v i n C hwise genetic matchUmating, sexuality” (Oryx and marriage and divorce contracts, engchi. Crake 42). Apparently, the life-guiding courses have obfuscated economic calculation with social relationship. The guidance about social relationship, including how to manage your family, friend, love relationship, has merged with neoliberal rationalities that discipline the Compound students to consider personal interest when developing connections. The neoliberal notions are represented through the publication, the “cheap do-it-yourself enlightenment handbook,” Jimmy reads during college period. They are neoliberal management literature advocating how to become a valuable, influential. 19.

(27) and successful person: “Each one of us must tread the path laid out before him, or her….and each path is unique.”; “It is important…to ignore minor irritants, to avoid pointless repinings, and to turn one’s mental energies to immediate realities and to the tasks at hand.”; “The higher the hurdle the greater the jump. Having to face a crisis causes you to grow as a person” (Oryx and Crake 23, 45, 237). Also, these “pointless phrases” are correlative with the books from which Jimmy writes his term paper: “Self-Help Books of the Twentieth Century: Exploiting Hope and Fear”: “Improve Your Self-Image,” “How to Make Friends and Influence People,” and “You Can Have It All” (194). The neoliberal management publications wrapped in cover of freedom,. 治政大than ideology of democratic virtues and enlightenment, suggest nothing other 立. inspiring one’s aspiration, ambition and hope for competition. Both the courses and. ‧ 國. 學. the books reveal that the Compounders’ life has entered into capitalist calculation.. ‧. This mode of managing social life with the maximum benefits determines individual’s. sit. y. Nat. values. Social connection has interwoven with the consideration of economic profit.. io. al. class power and degenerate social stratification.. er. The economic rationality redefining social relationship furthers to consolidate the. n. v i n The investment of labor powerC reveals characteristic—“social h e na neoliberal gchi U. competivism” (Dardot and Laval 41). It is exactly a nature of neoliberal society: the entire social domain has transformed into a competition. To survive in the competitive society, investment of the self becomes priority overriding other ideologies and goals in student’s life blueprint. The Compounders teach the kids that a good university’s permission brings forth a good job; a high-wage job helps to meet a proper spouses; and, these parents are easier to have high-intelligent child, who grows to be valuable labor force for the corporations. In addition, human capital is correlated with the educational investment:. 20.

(28) if you want a child whose human capital…is high, you can see that you will have to make an investment, you will have to worked enough, to have sufficient income, and to have a social status such that it will enable you to take for a spouse or co-producer of this future human capital, someone who has significant human capital themselves. (The Birth of Biopolitics 228) The collectively investable self-enterprise banks constitute a high-risk society. In this intensely competitive labor market, people have to keep mobility in self-improvement. 治政大 becomes governable The trilogy imagines a world that the self-entrepreneur 立. and learning.. when labor power has been operated by quantization, digitalization and articulation.. ‧ 國. 學. Many critics have contended that the universalization of commercialism over labor. ‧. power. Besides commodification of animals, organs and cells, “human beings are. sit. y. Nat. turned into labor force with a price in the market” (Yi-Chuan Huang 38). If labor’s. io. er. skills can be calculated, categorized and then simplified into series of data, education. al. will easily fall into a previous tool for class division. This situation is portrayed. n. v i n through the Student Auction,Cinhwhich labor powerU e n g c h i has endowed with exchange value. When Jimmy and Crake graduate from the HelthWyzer High, they attend the Auction in order to gain permission from universities. Interestingly, the whole process of the Student Auction is like a labor power auction. Students have to gain higher grades to draw college’s attention. In the Auction the companies bid for human resources according to student’s professional skills (especially the students who are good at the bioengineered or science subject). The top universities (which certainly belong to a corporation) purchase the best students who are “wall-to-wall NTs [Minus the genius gene]” (Oryx and Crake 194). Crake’s high grades and talent on science enable him to. 21.

(29) be “snatched up at a high price by the Watson-Crick Institute,” where student’s future is settled since its status amounts to the old Harvard (173). The Student Auction represents the situation of commodification of labor power in labor market under the operation of corporate power. Education becomes a long-term investment for the upper echelons and a prerequisite method of selecting valuable workers. If education turns into an investment, it is unable to reshuffle the solid hierarchy but consolidate inequality. The contrast of educational resources between Jimmy and Crake receive in the colleges goes widened. After a humiliating” process and “a long spell of lackluster bidding,” Jimmy finally gets permission from the Martha Graham. 治政大and desolate facilities Academy (Oryx and Crake 174). Martha Graham’s buildings 立. are in a state of dilapidation. The college is a depressing place: Jimmy has to share a. ‧ 國. 學. form suite with roommate in a cramped room; the cafeteria provides only adulterated. ‧. or unreal food; the electrical supply and recreational facilities are already out of. sit. y. Nat. repaired. In contrast to Martha Graham, Watson-Crick Institute is a palace. They offer. io. er. premium suite for every student with expensive furniture and maid service, fantastic. al. and real food in the faculty dining hall. The Student Services even provides extra. n. v i n services to satisfy student’s need ofC sexuality. inequality manifests the nature of h e nThe gchi U educational investment. According to Foucault, the neoliberal notion with respect to education is an investment, a mother-child relationship: if a mother spends more time and money on her child (various investment such as cares, food, and affection), the child gets better education which means that these children are easier to gain privilege within the high-risk society than the inferior one (The Birth of Biopolitics 244). Likewise, there is no need for the corporations to invest in the inferior and valueless labor force. As Crake and Jimmy go to the colleges, their future has been settled at the same. 22.

(30) time. Crake leads the Paradice project and the best scientific researchers, facilities, and workplace while Jimmy works as a promotional in a window dressing job to decorate the trivial and meaningless real ads of 2-D verbiage. The interest-oriented education intensifies the class hierarchy and consolidates class power since the colleges make class division in advance. This social Darwinism mode naturally excludes the inferior ones who are disadvantages. What’s more, it explains why the gene-editing researches become the “Wave of the future” (Oryx and Crake 201). Therefore, we can say that the bio-engineering technology is a production of. 治政大to consolidate their privileges the fierce-competition matrix, the upper echelons have 立. neoliberal rationalities, and the consensus of human capital ushers to eugenics. Under. not only through high cost of educational investment but through biogenetic. ‧ 國. 學. modification. Bearing no kid in the second marriage, Jimmy’s father and stepmother. ‧. resort to the customized-baby service through the cloned companies such as Infantade,. sit. y. Nat. Foetility, Perfectababe. The intelligent parents want flawless, intelligent and. io. er. customized children (Oryx and Crake 289). Nevertheless, if the transgenic technology. al. in clone hits the market, the situation of poor people at the periphery of society. n. v i n C h and “genetic make-ups” become tougher. Once the perfect e n g c h i U children stand in. predominance in the high-risk society, the selection eliminates the loser. Atwood’s concern for eugenic has occurred. In 2015 the UK had allowed the creation of babies from two women and a man to stop genetic disease. The UK had opened entrance to new definition for humans at forefront of legislation, and undoubtedly gives rise to potential technology in the genetics. However, in the debates many scholars struggled with the gene modification, designer babies and increasing class power. Atwood gives a warning that the clones and the gene-editing babies are the result of the competitive society.. 23.

(31) In contrast to the privileged elites of Compounders, the labors who are disadvantaged and inferior to the former should accept the disparity since “while personal and individual freedom in the marketplace is guaranteed, each individual is held responsible and accountable for his or her own actions and well-being” (Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism 65). In the extreme flexible labor market, the worker’s wage and the rights for work all fall in hand of the companies. When Jimmy is called for an interviewed, he has to hint his “cheap value” to AnooYoo’s personnels for the insignificant position (Oryx and Crake 245). Nevertheless, Jimmy’s economic condition is still better than the pleebians.. 治政 Worse than Jimmy, Toby is a dispossessed pleebian driven 大 out the mechanism 立. competition, a marginal figure who has no rich parents, without equal privilege to. ‧ 國. 學. compete with others. She comes upon plight since her father has committed suicide. ‧. with forbidden weapon. In order to hide from the authorities, she takes various works. sit. y. Nat. and even resorts to sell her hair and donating ovaries. The outcome is her infertility.. io. er. Toby realizes what she has done is nothing other than suicide: “did she want to live or. al. did she want to die? If die, there were quicker ways. If live, she had to live differently”. n. v i n (The Year of the Flood 31). Then theCnext as a “furzooter” undermines h ejobnworking gchi U. her subjectivity when she is subjected to “hot and humid inside the furzoots, and the range of vision was limited” (31). Yet, her next job as a waitress in the SecretBurger through the pleemobs, an illegal labor market, is even worse. The extremely-low wage with two burgers a day barely supports her; she has to accept her boss Blanco’s sexual violence in order to keep the law-wage job. Hence Vials states that it is the “propertised subject” that leads to erase the distinction between slavery and “free labor” (249). It is rather clear that the flexibility of market rests upon devaluation of labor power and easily exploited low-wage workforces. This expropriation creates. 24.

(32) surplus capital and opening up new opportunities for the profitable environment. When being dispossessed of hours and wages, the disadvantaged workers remain only the lowest standard right for work. In this perspective, Daniel Zamora points out that the problem followed by neoliberalism lies not in inequality but in “social exclusion”: the social group finds itself “‘locked in the straitjacket of exclusion’ and is reduced to ‘an ignored population, always rallying, but continually disbanding,’ has no capacity to represent itself and no identity’” (71-72). Toby’s instance proves that neoliberal implementation is unable to reshuffle the decks of card between the rich and the poor. 治政 The commodification of labor power points to大 an interest-oriented society. The 立. since it fundamentally prevents the poor from the game table.. class hierarchy proves the impossibility of neoliberalism since it ensures not the. ‧ 國. 學. democratic freedom but the freedom of private enterprise. Foucault thus contends that. ‧. what we enjoy now is only a “consumer of freedom”:. sit. y. Nat. …freedom of the market, freedom to buy and sell, the free exercise of. io. er. property rights, freedom of discussion, possible freedom of expression,. al. and so on. The new governmental reason needs freedom; therefore, the. n. v i n C h consumes freedom. new art of government e n g c h i U It must produce it, it must organize it. The new art of government therefore appears as the management of freedom.… (The Birth of Biopolitics 63) The freedom to create or perform one’s subjectivity is nothing other than a fallacy since neoliberal freedom is only a creation of free consumption. Even more, if individuals take themselves as mobile subjectivity, this hegemonic mindset reduces. the rivalry between labor power and capital. As Read states, the original opposition is displaced by “the mode of subjection, a new production of subjectivity” (32). In this view, when the society takes improvement of human capital as a general consensus,. 25.

(33) “it is inevitable that the problem of the control, screening, and improvement of the human capital of individuals, as a function of unions and consequent reproduction, will become actual” (The Birth of Biopolitics 228). The market no longer efficiently regulates the government as classical liberalism used to function. Conversely, the market has fallen into the instrument of authority since homo œconomicus puts individual “governmentalizable” into control of social body (252-53). The propagation of neoliberal mindset through the “life skill courses” and publications manifests the dominance by the disciplinary power. Lemke addresses, neoliberal rationalities “are characterized by a specific articulation of autonomous. 治政大 subjectification and disciplinary subjection, freedom and domination” (Lemke, 立. “Foucault, Politics and Failure” 41). With operation of social classification and. ‧ 國. 學. alienation, neoliberalism constitutes a new form of governmentality that achieves. ‧. control of society.. sit. y. Nat. Alienation and social control. io. er. Although the aspiration of amassing self-enterprise bank enhances labor power,. al. it engenders alienation by personal desire at the same time. The Compound labors. n. v i n to company’s surplus of capital. believe that personal achievement isCclosely h e nrelated gchi U In this way, labors conduct themselves to seek for personal success, which has beneficial effect on company’s interest as a whole. That is a process of subjectivity: individuals discipline themselves. In other words, worker has actively participates in process of capital production, the mono ideology simultaneously controls the whole society and up to the whole nation. If the self-discipline works within subjectivities, the single economic rationality incorporates all sorts of human behaviors for social control. When Zeb lurks in HelthWyzer as an agent for collecting information, he delineates that. 26.

(34) employee-employer relationship in HelthWyzer is as close as a “big family”: The officially promoted view of HelthWyzer West was that it was one big happy family, dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the betterment of humankind. To dwell too much on the improvement in value for the shareholders was considered bad taste, but on the other hand there was an employee options package. All staff were expected to be unremittingly cheerful, to meet their assigned goals diligently, and—as in real families—not to ask too much about what was really going on.. 治政大inseparable, labors have totally When the interests of labors and the corporations are 立 (MaddAddam 232). leant toward the capital standing at the same side with employers. The “assigned goals”. ‧ 國. 學. distract the labors from issues and other ideologies that have nothing to do with. ‧. self-interest. The labors become invisible within the power system as a governable. sit. y. Nat. object and ignore what the corporations have done. Michael Hardt suggests in his. io. er. article “Withering of Civil Society” that the entire productive forces of “combination of social activity” and “socialized labor” form a social capital, which is interested in. al. n. v i n C hto exclude social forces constructing “a separate plane” e n g c h i U foreign to the system (38-39). In other words, the hegemony of neoliberalism integrates social activities into a union, but it also makes labor’s voice drowned into the system. Fundamentally, the freedom of individual rights is derived from the culture of “buying and selling”—a consumer culture. Although the Compounders mock that consumption represents the pleeblands, the walled people are no exception since consumerism has occupied and reconstituted the social body. Therefore, the performance of identity is correlated to the signification of the commodities with multiple brands, logos and slogans. Constitution of self has been simplified by the. 27.

(35) consumable objects. Jimmy’ slogans selling “hope and fear, desire and revulsion” (Oryx and Crake 248) promise customers that their expectation is going to be fulfilled if they purchase the objects. Cooke suggests that Atwood presents a “masquerade” of contemporary western society by description of a world “so starkly reducible to brands, slogans, and tech-noscientific panaceas” (75-76). However, such form of constituting-self manifests a crisis of identity. Global capitalization blurs boundaries of nation, local culture and identity toward a “smooth space” (Empire 327). The fracture creates capacity for the fantastic and striking commercial logos, which displaces and even reconstructs individual’s memory, emotion and connections.. 治政 Jimmy attempts to investigate Oryx’s identity by inquiring大 Oryx’s birthplace and 立. appearance of the kidnapper’s car. Yet, Oryx totally loses the memories with respect. ‧ 國. 學. to her native language and homeland. All she can recall is the commercial logo. ‧. appeared in her obscure pieces of memory, “a red parrot (Oryx and Crake 138),” a. sit. y. Nat. trivial and meaningless signifier buried in the labyrinth of consumerism. That is why. io. er. Jimmy fails to make connection with Oryx by geographical or racial dimensions of. al. codes. In effect, it is a technique that Oryx acts a desirable object oscillating between. n. v i n Cthe relationship manifests the human Jimmy and Crake. The uncertainty of h etriangle ngchi U detachment. Through Jimmy’s viewpoint, we sense a distance between the. Compounders. These points show that the exchange value has applied to family, friendship, lovers, and sexuality. The more society moves forward an economic state, the more the individual is isolated by the economic bond (The Birth of Biopolitics 302). The analytic calculation of economic rationality redefines social body, fulfilling the void of social relation. Furthermore, the neoliberal society generates sense of alienation to the individuals who have no privileges within competition mechanics. Neoliberal notion. 28.

(36) of “‘empowerment’” has effect of “confirming the individual’s lack of capabilities and ‘worthlessness.’” (Rehmann 153). Jimmy, a negative character, is just opposite of the optimistic, proactive and positive attitude of the neoliberal. Living under the shadow of his intelligent parents and friend, Jimmy/Snowman often feels frustrated for not being one of elites. Jimmy deems himself as an “outcast” between the genius Compound dwellers (Labudova 138). Jimmy’s parents are genographer and microbiologist; Crake’s prominent achievement in bio-engineering earns reputation. Crake introduces Jimmy to his “Asperger’s U” friends as “neurotypical,” which. 治政 literacy, but his father always Unlike those “number people,” Jimmy has talents in大立 appears to calls him Magnon or apes among those elites (Oryx and Crake 203).. gives him tools, attempting to make him “practical” (Oryx and Crake 37). In the. ‧ 國. 學. viewpoint of pleebs, Jimmy is “the privileged, weak-spined, degenerate offspring of. ‧. the Compounds” (242). Being a womanizer is the only one thing which makes him. sit. y. Nat. feel superior to Crake. Jimmy is a social misfit within the genius community.. io. er. The risky society’s tendency to emphasize on personal success and positive attitude depresses some disadvantaged individuals. Jimmy’s low social status makes. al. n. v i n C hisolation: “He wasUreduced to flirting with him encounter indifference and engchi. waitpersons, and even they turned a cold shoulder. They’d seen fast-talking youngsters like him before, they knew he had no status” (249). He is originally a. charming womanizer, but it is not workable in his company. And, Jimmy discovers that the more he dedicates his life to work, the more he becomes “drudge and a helot”: “He was to cudgel his brains and spend ten-hour days wandering the labyrinths of the thesaurus and cranking out the verbiage” (248). His sexual life withers into “a zero” (249). It reminds us Marx’s famous theory that the alienation between labors and the products now turns to exercise within mentalities and social interaction in neoliberal. 29.

(37) society. The isolation exerts in particular when work contents and workplaces gradually shift to the production of non-physical acts provoking a detachment in labor’s mental activities. Jimmy is encouraged to participate activities of the Compound community, in which the upper managers always encourage individual to be proactive and sociable, but the trend of proactive attitude de facto pushes Jimmy into the marginal. Every week there was a Compound social barbecue, a comprehensive ratfuck that all employees were expected to attend. These were dire. 治政 fresh out of innocuous drivel; he loitered on大 the edges gnawing on a 立. occasions for Jimmy. He lacked the energy to work the crowd, he was. burned soydog and silently ripping apart everyone with eyesight. (249). ‧ 國. 學. The frequent celebration and activities make Jimmy separated from the community.. ‧. Ultimately, he has to “convince himself he was part of a group of other people” (253).. sit. y. Nat. Feeling alienated from the scientific elites, Jimmy never blends into the center but. io. al. er. stands as an excluded individual within the community as an internal outsider. The. n. more personal life corresponds to social activities, the more individuals experience sense of isolation.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Above all, the capital rationalities govern labor power through incorporating their minds, feelings and actions with a single ideology. When the distinction between market and human acts (work, social connections and politics) has been blurred and when economic rationality becomes the single discourse, “neoliberal power works by dispersing bodies and individuals through privatization and isolation” (Read 34). Negri also contends that the neoliberal matrix is not made up of the “atomized individuals” but “collective individuals” (The Politics of Subversion 206). The individual who has accepted reality and who responds systematically to. 30.

(38) “modifications artificially introduced into the environment” may become manageable (The Birth of Biopolitics 270). In this perspective, it is doubtful whether neoliberal notion is able to undermine sovereign power through protection of individual freedom and free market. It is a paradox in the neoliberal’s argument of protecting individual rights since once democratic value contradicts the economic profits, the authority clears the hinder which blocks off the economic expansion. The CorpSeCorps constructs an anarchy composed of open market and totalitarianism that leads to a new form of sovereign power, Empire. Neoliberal Empire. 立. 政治大. Before we talk about the definition of “neoliberal empire,” I would like to. ‧ 國. 學. mention the scenario of the trilogy. The setting is located in New New York (on the. ‧. Jersey Shore), which is a new nation emerged after the collapse of the “Old New. sit. y. Nat. York.” The reason is more than global warming. A point provokes our curiosity that. io. er. what happened during the process of transition? What is the meaning of the “New” in. al. contrast to the Old one? The following paragraph expresses the old Compounders’. n. v i n C hIt also reveals thatUthe disappearance of the old city is nostalgia for the Old New York. engchi. resulted from not only climate change but also a tremendous change in the way of governance: Remember when you could drive anywhere? Remember when everyone lived in the pleeblands? Remember when you could fly anywhere in the world, without fear? Remember hamburger chains, always real beef, remember hot-dog stands? Remember before New York was New New York? Remember when voting mattered? It was all standard lunchtime hand-puppet stuff. (Oryx and Crake 63). 31.

(39) Atwood gives a prescient warning that the Old New York (i.e. the current United States) is going to disappear. Although the American people call themselves the defender of democracy, the truth suggests otherwise. They are losing democracy. The crisis of democracy probably has come to the western country when the world is immersed with fear and suspicion to terrorism, when the small stands are driven out by cartels, when the gap between rich and poor is increasing and when democratic elections fall into ritual for political manipulation operated by the giant companies. The delineation of “New New York” implies that neoliberal capitalism calls sovereign. 治政大of neoliberal The authoritarian CorpSeCorps is totally the production 立. power back.. implementation. The corporation takes no actions if dissidents do not criticize the. ‧ 國. 學. policy of privatization. Nevertheless, the CorpSeCorps imposes strict security upon. ‧. the Compounders not only to avoid the disease from the pleeblands. The security. sit. y. Nat. measures entailing night patrol and curfew mean to protect private asset from. io. er. commercial spy and some insane pleebians. Instead, the precautions mean to take hold of the citizens. The public security justifies the company’s illegal activities of. al. n. v i n C h mother, Sharon, U invasion of human rights. After Jimmy’s e n g c h i a dissident and a betrayer, takes out confidential files and escapes away from the Compounds, two agents investigate his house without need of permission. Two CorpSeCorps women do investigation in name of looking after Jimmy. Jimmy and his father raise no objection to the Corp’s intrusion. What’s more, “The CorpSeCorps had never lost sight of Jimmy” (Oryx and Crake 197, 256). When he visits Crake during a vacation, Jimmy discovers that the CorpSeCorps men never cease to track his whereabouts by which they should detect his mother’s location. It is clear that the corporations have caused damage to the citizens’ privacy.. 32.

(40) The economic barrier should be removed to create a more flexible market for reduction of government’s omnipresent role. However, once the overwhelming corporate power unlimitedly swells up to monopolize every domain of social welfare, it replaces the state-nation power. Neoliberal implementation enables the CorpSeCorps to expand from a small company to a supranational conglomerate through unlimited economic deregulation. The following paragraph depicts the process that the CorpSeCorps is fed by the nutrition of deregulation and released from economic barriers:. 治政 thinks Toby. He shouldn’t have been大 so stubborn. Already, back then, 立 He thought the world was still the way it had been fifty years before,. the CorpSeCorps were consolidating their power. They’d started as a. ‧ 國. 學. private security firm for the Corporations, but then they’d taken over. ‧. when the local police forces collapsed for lack of funding, and people. sit. y. Nat. liked that at first because Corporations paid, but now CorpSeCorps. io. er. were sending their tentacles everywhere. (The Year of the Flood 25). al. The paragraph depicts that when public welfare, institution and infrastructures are. n. v i n C h the military force investable for personal enterprises, e n g c h i U becomes a private army at. company’s service. The security company develops partnership with other companies, providing military force and service, and takes over other industries or drives them out of the market. They determine what sorts of business is legal or illegal. Moreover, the CorpSeCorps men expulse street prostitution and establish “Seksmart” and issue a proclamation that all measures in acquisition and expulsion of illegal businesses are for “public health and the safety of women” (The Year of the Flood 7). The instance proves the impossibility of neoliberal freedom since the fact of monopolization breaks its original optimization and competition mechanism. Therefore, Harvey remarks that. 33.