Dimensions of Defamiliarization for the Epidemic in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

Since the literary arena is the locus where facts and fiction blend, epidemics are represented in literature to address the reader’s intellect. Readers are the recipients of texts, whose reactions and interpretations are the yardstick by which the literary texts are measured. Some authors present themes and literary techniques in a new form, either explicitly or implicitly to defamiliarize what has already been deemed familiar. Authors address epidemics in their novels to highlight the gravity of these incidents in the present and to attract the reader’s attention. In Margaret Atwood’s novel titled Oryx and Crake (2003), the epidemic is the major incident that influences the subsequent events in the text. The current study aims to explore the multiple dimensions of the epidemic in Oryx and Crake. It also argues that these dimensions are represented in the text to achieve defamiliarization effect by applying reader response theory.