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Introduction: Rewriting and Transforming Traditions

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Contemporary Women’s Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing ((PSCWW))

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Abstract

The introduction begins by tracing the contexts, such as millennial anxiety, climate change, globalisation, terrorism and religious extremism that have informed the trend towards apocalyptic fiction in the contemporary moment. However, the gender blindness of much of the work in this field is also noted. The genres (including dystopia, science fiction and speculative fiction) in which post-apocalyptic fiction can be placed are then discussed. The introduction then situates contemporary women’s post-apocalyptic writing in a number of different histories, including the utopian and dystopian tradition, before focusing closely on a comparison of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and Octavia Butler’s Dawn (1987) as foundational texts within the genre.

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  1. School of Cultural Studies, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Susan Watkins

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  1. Susan Watkins
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Watkins, S. (2020). Introduction: Rewriting and Transforming Traditions. In: Contemporary Women’s Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. Palgrave Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48650-9_1

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