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Reproducing Patriarchy: Thematic Similarities in Feminist Dystopian Novels The Handmaid’s Tale and Only Ever Yours
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of English.
2017 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

The feminist dystopian genre has evolved from actively dealing with feminist issues to featuring strong female characters who seemingly do not face these issues, battling oppression of humanity at large rather than women’s rights specifically. Therefore, the young adult dystopian novel Only Ever Yours (2014) by Louise O’Neill stands out as one of few today to address actual feminist issues within the genre. Moreover, this becomes even more prominent as it has striking similarities with the notable work The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood. Despite thirty years between publications, the core feminist themes remain issues of high relevance. The parallels between the two novels illustrate that progress in gender equality is perhaps not as great as official and legal changes would indicate. In this essay I employ feminist theory to analyse thematic similarities of reproduction and bodily oppression in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and O’Neill’s Only Ever Yours in order to unveil a continuation of social criticism in the feminist dystopian genre. By looking at the development of feminist movements during the most active decades of the genre, the results show that despite that some argue that we are currently in an age of post-feminism, several issues handled in the previous ‘waves’ remain unsolved and relevant. Despite progress in positive representation of women within the dystopian genre today, O’Neill’s novel appears to warn us against viewing feminism and past women’s issues as things of the past.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017. , p. 22
Keywords [en]
Margaret Atwood, Louise O’Neill, The Handmaid’s Tale, Only Ever Yours, Feminism, Dystopia, Literature, Reproduction, Socialist feminism, Secondwave feminism, Postfeminism
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URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-151653OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-151653DiVA, id: diva2:1179682
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Available from: 2018-09-18 Created: 2018-02-01 Last updated: 2018-09-18Bibliographically approved

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Citation style
  • apa
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  • nn-NB
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