Eco-dystopian Novels Written By Women: Second, Third, and Fourth Wave Feminism

Authors

Trystyn Cox

Date of this Version

12-2022

Citation

Environmental Studies Undergraduate Student Thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022

Comments

Copyright 2022, Trystyn Cox

Abstract

The project is thematic; analysis of eco-dystopian novels written by American female authors in the 20th and 21st centuries in order to determine if the different waves of feminism experienced in the United States had any influence over the books. By doing an analysis of eco-dystopian novels the study identifies if there were any outside societal movements or issues going on at the time that may have influenced how the book was created or if a particular book was able to open innovative ideas to the society at the time it was published. I researched the second, third, and fourth waves of feminisms to connect to the eco-dystopian novels and how that affected ecofeminism.

The novels included in this study are Walk to the End of the World by Suzie McKee Chamas published in 1974 in the middle of the second wave of feminism, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler published in 1993 toward the beginning of the third wave of, and The New Wilderness by Diane Cook published in 2020 which will represent the fourth wave of feminism. Each book represents the wave of feminism that was going on during the time of its publishing. The first wave of feminisms will be excluded from this research as environmental fictions did not become prevalent until the 20th century