The The Feminist Dystopia: Its Emergence and Evolution

Abstract

This article aims to provide an accurate explanation of how the feminist literary dystopia emerged in the 1970s in the West. In the text it is proposed that feminist dystopian literature appears from the feminist utopian literary form. That is to say, the end of feminist utopian literature is not witnessed with the beginning of the aforementioned decade, but rather its evolution towards another narrative form adapted to the historical and social conditions of the time, more skeptical and cautious. Thus, the feminist dystopia emerges as a critical artistic manifestation, coinciding with the waves of activist feminism.

Although the classic form of dystopia always denotes a rejection of utopian models, it would undergo a transformation never seen before, almost against its own foundations. The feminist dystopia keeps in itself the censorship of totalitarian regimes and the rejection of oppressive gender relations, but it allows us to look at a better future, not perfect (like that of utopia), rather, achievable. Feminist dystopias differ from the classical dystopian tradition in that they focus their narratives on women, thus highlighting the horrors of tyrannical societies suffered specifically by women, as well as their active role in the liberation of their community.