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  4. Food Transformation Technology in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl and What It Means for Us

Food Transformation Technology in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl and What It Means for Us

Young-hyun Lee: Sungkyunkwan University

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.13185/KK2020.0033/3430

Abstract

This article argues that a stage in history has come where advanced technology, especially that of genetically engineered foods and animals, is quickening the humankind’s downfall. Bacigalupi represents this well in The Windup Girl, a futuristic novel that looks with great focus at the transformation of food and animals in the twenty-third century. In our own world, climate change is creating urgent food issues. Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) technologies, having been initially introduced to overcome dire food shortages, have turned out to have many negative side effects, both in our own world and in the fictional world of The Windup Girl. More problematic are the unknown dangers of food transformation technologies. These technologies are driven by multinational corporations both in the real and fictional worlds, and Bacigalupi suggests that the current trajectories of our food transformation industries and their technologies could lead to the demise of human civilization.

Keywords

food transformation technology, GMO, The Wind-Up Girl, climate change, Paolo Bacigalupi

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10.13185/KK2020.0033/3430

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

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