Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond

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.

Douglas A. Vakoch is President of METI, dedicated to Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence and sustaining civilization on multigenerational timescales. As Director of Green Psychotherapy, PC, he helps alleviate environmental distress through ecotherapy. Dr. Vakoch is editor-in-chief of the book series Space and Society, as well as general editor of Ecocritical Theory and Practice. He has explored ecofeminism in six of his other books, including Ecofeminist Science Fiction: International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature.

Foreword Vandana Singh Preface Douglas A. Vakoch Introduction Patrick D. Murphy I. Climate Change and Future Earth Dystopias 1. An Ecofeminist Reading of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of Talents Hatice Övgü Tüzün 2. An Ecofeminist Treatment of Nourishment and Feeding in Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy Debra Wain 3. Margaret Atwood's Ecodystopic SF: Approaching Ethics, Gender, and Ecology Izabel F. O. Brandão and Ildney Cavalcanti 4. Ecofeminist (Post) Ice-Age Ecotopia: Doris Lessing's Mara and Dann Books Julia Kuznetski 5. Ecofeminist Climate Fiction: Merlinda Bobis's Locust Girl Iris Ralph II. Utopias on Earth and Beyond 6. "Extinction is Forever": Ecofeminism and Apocalypse in Louise Lawrence's Young Adult Short Fiction Michelle Deininger and Gemma Scammell 7. Ecofeminist Utopian Speculations in Henrietta Augusta Dugdale's A Few Hours in a Far-Off Age (1883), Catherine Helen Spence's A Week in the Future (1888), Mary Anne Moore-Bentley's A Woman of Mars; Or, Australia's Enfranchised Woman (1901), and Joyce Vincent's The Celestial Hand: A Sensational Story Nicole Anae 8. Alien Ecofeminist Societies: "Sharers" in Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean Irene Sanz Alonso 9. Re-reading Ursula K. Le Guin's SF: The Daoist Yin Principle in Ecofeminist Novels Amy Chan Kit-sze 10. Keeping Grows; Giving Flows: Reciprocal Relations and the Gift of Always Coming Home Karl Zuelke 11. "The Revolt of the Mother": Romanticizing Nature and Rejecting Science in Sally Miller Gearhart's The Wanderground and Other Feminist Utopias Christy Tidwell