Тоталитаризм как причина и последствие апокалипсиса в романе Маргарет Этвуд Орикс и Крейк и повести Татьяны Толстой Кысь

Abstract

The novel Orix and Crake is devoted to the future of the United States, the time when severe totalitarian regime is established in the country, the power is in the hands of big financial corporations engaged in genetic experiments on people and animals, annihilating nature for the sake of big profits and producing harmful medicines and food. Crake, a genius scientist, condemns the political system and the race of Man in general, invents a new race of Man, perfect from his point of view, and also a virus which exterminates all people from the face of earth. The novel belongs to the genre of anti-utopia and presents a narrative of the events of the only survival after the Apocalypse – the protagonist Jimmy, Crake’s friend. It’s a lyrical narration of life under the conditions of totalitarian state and also a book loaded with a lot of meanings referring to the Bible and world literature. T. Tolstaya’s anti-utopia depicts the future of Russia after the Explosion which annihilated the former civilization. In Moscow, which is now called Fyodor Kuzmichsk after the name of its present governor, severe totalitarian regime is established. It turns the hero, a young naïve dreamer with highly developed poetical perception of life, into an assassin and executioner who persecutes people who dare read the prohibited books. Kis in the book is a symbol of life under the rule of terror caused by the despotic regime.