Download Free Feminist Dystopias And Ecofeminist Representation Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Feminist Dystopias And Ecofeminist Representation and write the review.

In this paper, I argue that the genre of feminist dystopian fiction, which has grown and evolved rapidly as a response to women's anger, and which often aims to critique patriarchal attempts to control female reproduction, often inadvertently reinforces a kind of biological essentialism that links women inherently to nature--a tendency that has been largely overlooked by literary critics. I take up this argument through an analysis of two feminist dystopian novels: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985), and Naomi Alderman's more recent work The Power (2016). I argue that The Handmaid's Tale has been praised as a critique of patriarchy, yet critics have overlooked its descriptions and imagery that insistently connect women to nature, an inadvertent reinforcement of biological essentialism that often stems from myths which view women and nature as involving a mutually beneficial relationship. I read Naomi Alderman's The Power--a novel Alderman dedicates to Atwood--as both an intertextual response to and critique of these ideals in The Handmaid's Tale, arguing that Alderman depicts a dystopian world in which women's relationship to nature can be profoundly destructive. I argue that by depicting a world that threatens the reproductive rights of men, Alderman suggests that biological essentialism is too often used as a means to maintain dominant power structures. At stake in this argument is an enriched understanding not only of Atwood and Alderman but also of the power and limitations of the genre of the feminist dystopian novel.
Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Literature - Comparative Literature, grade: 1,7, http://www.uni-jena.de/, language: English, abstract: Even in our contemporary society men and women are not equal, and social, political and economic discrimination based on gender exists, and there are several countries where women get oppressed and discriminated systematically by the regime. Only now, on the 24th of June 2018, did Saudi Arabia enact a law which annulled the prohibition of women driving. Thus, feminist movements are of great importance to finally achieve equality between the sexes. However, in our present society exist two extremes and both of them pose danger to this equalization. On the one hand, there are people who still do not take feminism and gender equality seriously and even override these social changes. This leads to the necessity of examining feminism and feminist criticism in literature to raise awareness that women are individual beings and no replaceable objects that should be dominated by men. On the other hand, radical feminism with radical beliefs to create a ‘women’s utopia’ can end up being used by anti-feminist organizations or even regimes for their own purposes. Therefore, it is important to examine how current feminist tendencies are criticized in literature by showing what they might lead to. This paper reads Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale as a feminist dystopia which provides feminist criticism through the representation of women’s oppression and their display as ‘Others’ in the patriarchal society Gilead. It will be shown that Atwood simultaneously criticizes current feminist tendencies through satire to raise awareness of how radical utopian feminist dreams can end up in dystopias.
Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,8, University of Leipzig, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyse the representation of women in utopian and dystopian literature. The research question of this paper is: To what extent is the representation of women and their status in the fictional societies determined by gender relations in the context of the distribution of power? To explore this question the historical context in which s/he wrote the novel is also assumed to be important. The approach applied to this thesis is based on gender and literary studies. In order to analyse the representation of women, this thesis offers a coherent structure consisting of four important steps. Firstly, each novel will be introduced with a brief paragraph on the historical background. Secondly, the power relations of the society have to be observed. Thirdly, the resulting gender relations will be analysed. Finally, in the context of the prior three steps of this thesis, the representation of women will be observed. In addition, I will use traditional female stereotypes in literature as a criterion for the analysis of the representation of women. The novels chosen for this purpose are Herland, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1915, followed by the dystopia Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley in 1932. The final novel will be the dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margarete Atwood in 1985. The last section of this thesis will compare the results of the analyses and clarify in how far power and gender relations determine the representation of women in utopian and dystopian literature in the light of the historical context of the novel.
Caught as we are in a grave climate crisis that seems more irreversible with every passing year, our literary portrayals of the future often feature the dystopian collapse of the world as we know it. Science fiction explores how we got here, while pointing toward a more hopeful path forward. From an ecofeminist perspective, a core cause of our current ecological catastrophe is the patriarchal domination of nature, playing out in parallel with the oppression of women. As an alternative to dystopian futures that seem increasingly inevitable, ecofeminist science fiction helps us conjure utopias that promote environmental sustainability based on more egalitarian human relationships. Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction explores the fictional worlds of such canonical novelists as Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing, and Joan Slonczewski, as well as those of lesser-known science fiction writers, as they collectively probe humanity’s greatest existential threats. Contributors from five continents provide compelling analyses of far future dystopias on Earth that are all too easy to imagine becoming reality if humankind’s current trajectory continues, as well as provocative insights into science fiction utopias set on idyllic planets orbiting distant stars, which offer liberatory alternatives that might someday be actualized in the real world. By examining the links between the destruction of the environment and the domination of women, Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond provides the tools to counteract those intertwined oppressions, helping create a foundation for a truly habitable world.
Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature provides guidance in navigating some of the most pressing dangers we face today. Science fiction helps us face problems that threaten the very existence of humankind by giving us the emotional distance to see our current situation from afar, separated in our imaginations through time, space, or circumstance. Extrapolating from contemporary science, science fiction allows a critique of modern society, imagining more life-affirming alternatives. In this collection, ecocritics from five continents scrutinize science fiction for insights into the fundamental changes we need to make to survive and thrive as a species. Contributors examine ecofeminist themes in films, such as Avatar, Star Wars, and The Stepford Wives, as well as television series including Doctor Who and Westworld. Other scholars explore an internationally diverse group of both canonical and lesser-known science fiction writers including Oreet Ashery, Iraj Fazel Bakhsheshi, Liu Cixin, Louise Erdrich, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Larissa Lai, Ursula K. Le Guin, Chen Qiufan, Mary Doria Russell, Larissa Sansour, Karen Traviss, and Jeanette Winterson. Ecofeminist Science Fiction explores the origins of human-caused environmental change in the twin oppressions of women and of nature, driven by patriarchal power and ideologies. Female embodiment is examined through diverse natural and artificial forms, and queer ecologies challenge heteronormativity. The links between war and environmental destruction are analyzed, and the capitalist motivations and means for exploiting nature are critiqued through postcolonial perspectives.
This collection of essays offers global perspectives on feminist utopia and dystopia in speculative literature, film, and art, working from a range of intersectional approaches to examine key works and genres in both their specific cultural context and a wider, global, epistemological, critical background. The international, diverse contributions, including a Foreword by Gregory Claeys, draw upon posthumanism, speculative realism, speculative feminism, object-oriented ontology, new materialisms, and post-Anthropocene studies to propose alternative perspectives on gender, environment, as well as alternate futures and pasts rendered in fiction. Instead of binary divisions into utopia vs dystopia, the collection explores genres transcending this dichotomy, scrutinising the oeuvre of both established and emerging writers, directors, and critics. This is a rich and unique collection suitable for scholars and students studying feminist literature, media cultural studies, and women’s and gender studies.
Two of the most important political movements of the late twentieth century are those of environmentalism and feminism. In this book, Val Plumwood argues that feminist theory has an important opportunity to make a major contribution to the debates in political ecology and environmental philosophy. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature explains the relation between ecofeminism, or ecological feminism, and other feminist theories including radical green theories such as deep ecology. Val Plumwood provides a philosophically informed account of the relation of women and nature, and shows how relating male domination to the domination of nature is important and yet remains a dilemma for women.
Explores the maternal experience from the mother's point of view. The book questions a society that has devalued and sentimentalized motherhood, and presents images of generative and creative women who are also mothers. It also discusses the portrayal of mothers in art, film and literature.
Literary critics and scholars have written extensively on the demise of the "utopian spirit" in the modern novel. What has often been overlooked is the emergence of a new hybrid subgenre, particularly in science fiction and fantasy, which incorporates utopian strategies within the dystopian narrative, particularly in the feminist dystopias of the 1980s and 1990s. The author names this new subgenre "transgressive utopian dystopias." Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue trilogy, Suzy McKee Charna's Holdfast series, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale are thoroughly analyzed within the context of this this new subgenre of "transgressive utopian dystopias." Analysis focuses particularly on how these works cover the interrelated categories of gender, race and class, along with their relationship to classic literary dualism and the dystopian narrative. Without completely dissolving the dualistic order, the feminist dystopias studied here contest the notions of unambiguity and authenticity that are generally part of the canon.