Religious Fundamentalism, Corporate Capitalism, and Pandemics in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, and Ling Ma’s Severance

Atasoy, Emrah; Horan, Thomas

Religious Fundamentalism, Corporate Capitalism, and Pandemics in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, and Ling Ma’s Severance

dc.authorid	0000-0002-5008-2636
dc.contributor.author	Atasoy, Emrah
dc.contributor.author	Horan, Thomas
dc.date.accessioned	2021-06-25T08:24:48Z
dc.date.available	2021-06-25T08:24:48Z
dc.date.issued	2021	en_US
dc.department	Kapadokya Üniversitesi, Beşeri Bilimler Fakültesi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü
dc.description.abstract	While the rapid dissemination of COVID-19 took many people by surprise, major works of recent apocalyptic fiction anticipate global pandemics similar to the one we currently face. This speculative literature warns that epidemics can catalyze religious fanaticism, even in so-called modern societies, challenging the Wellsian notion that technologically advanced societies are less susceptible to religious extremism. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003), the first novel in her MaddAddam trilogy, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014), and Ling Ma’s Severance (2018) prompt us to consider how the persistence and recurrence of pandemics could affect mainstream religious views and practices. Epidemics in this literature highlight disturbing similarities between corporate capitalism and fundamentalism by portraying both as faith-based, hierarchical systems, indicating that our free market economic system may actually prime us for theocracy. These dystopias also show how sceptical, sophisticated characters can unwittingly acclimate to corporate capitalism and religious fanaticism almost as easily as they can be infected by illness. This emerging sub-genre of apocalyptic fiction indicates that organized religion and a market economy can only function beneficially when distinct from each other.
dc.identifier.endpage	127	en_US
dc.identifier.startpage	127	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://blog.kapadokya.edu.tr/MediaUploader/Documents/Living%20in%20the%20End%20Times%20Programme%202021%20Update,%2012-01-2021.pdf
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12695/1177
dc.institutionauthor	Atasoy, Emrah
dc.language.iso	en
dc.relation.ispartof	Living in the End Times E-book of Abstracts
dc.relation.publicationcategory	Konferans Öğesi - Uluslararası - Kurum Öğretim Elemanı
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	en_US
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	*
dc.subject	[Keywords Not Available]
dc.title	Religious Fundamentalism, Corporate Capitalism, and Pandemics in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, and Ling Ma’s Severance
dc.type	Conference Object