Feminist Critical Dystopian Fiction: A New Emerging Subgenre?

Abstract

Despite historical achievements in women’s life, gender inequality is still one of the most prominent and contemporary concerns in nowadays society. As a matter of fact, this has influenced the economy, politics, arts and, particularly, literature. In fact, from the twentieth century onwards, feminist concerns have been saliently portrayed in literature through feminist critical dystopian narratives. Deriving from science fiction, utopia and dystopia, the subgenre aims at exposing women’s inequality and subjugation through the creation of a futuristic dark society in which women’s rights have been completely banned. On the one hand, a theoretical review has been made to deeply understand and contextualise the subgenre. On the other hand, the analysis of feminist critical dystopias such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and Naomi Alderman’s The Power (2016) has had the objective of studying how these specific novels, as representatives of the subgenre, contribute to the warning of how gender oppression could derive into a pessimistic future and to women’s battle for equality. Moreover, the major themes and characteristics have also been examined in order to give an overview of the subgenre. As a result of this investigation, the new type of literature could be considered as a cultural and educational means to eradicate this contemporary problem.