Abstract
What does it mean to teach and, many might argue, live within feminist dystopias? In what ways is the academy its own feminist dystopia? This chapter interweaves reflections on teaching a course on feminist dystopias, background research on the course’s dystopian texts such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and a science fiction meditation on the discomfiting ways neoliberal academia and White Feminism took shape in the classroom. Science fiction is explored as a speculative means of imagining what might-have-been and could-be-different in pedagogical practice. The chapter concludes by considering what we might learn with more time for feminist study, collaboration, mentoring, and self-reflection—necessities made nearly impossible within the contingencies of neoliberal academia.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahmed, Sara. 2010. The Promise of Happiness. Durham: Duke University Press.
Alter, Alexandra. 2017. “Uneasy about the Future, Readers Turn to Dystopian Classics.” The New York Times, January 27, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/business/media/dystopian-classics-1984-animal-farm-the-handmaids-tale.html?_r=0.
Atwood, Margaret. 2006. The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Everyman’s Library.
Bastién, Angelica Jade. 2017. “In Its First Season, The Handmaid’s Tale Greatest Failing Is How It Handles Race.” Vulture, June 14, 2017. http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/the-handmaids-tale-greatest-failing-is-how-it-handles-race.html.
Berlatsky, Noah. 2017. “Both Versions of The Handmaid’s Tale Have a Problem with Racial Erasure.” The Verge, June 15, 2017. https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/15/15808530/handmaids-tale-hulu-margaret-atwood-black-history-racial-erasure.
Bobb, Brooke. 2017. “The Handmaids Take Washington: Is This Bonnet the New Pussy Hat?” Vogue.Com, June 28, 2017. https://www.vogue.com/article/fashion-runway-the-handmaids-tale-protest.
Butler, Octavia E. 1979. Kindred. Boston: Beacon Press.
Curtis, John W. 2014. “The Employment Status of Instructional Staff Members in Higher Education, Fall 2011.” Washington, DC: American Association of University Professors. https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/files/AAUP-InstrStaff2011-April2014.pdf.
Fields-White, Monee. 2011. “The Root: How Racism Tainted Women’s Suffrage.” NPR.Org. March 25, 2011. https://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134849480/the-root-how-racism-tainted-womens-suffrage.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. (1892) 1973. The Yellow Wallpaper. New York: Feminist Press (Reprint).
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. 1913. “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper.” The Forerunner 4: 271.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. (1915) 1979. Herland. New York: Pantheon Books (Reprint).
Google Dictionary. n.d. “Adjunct Definition—Google Search.” Accessed December 8, 2017. https://www.google.de/search?q=adjunct+definition&oq=adjunct+defini&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l4.5262j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.
Higgins, Charlotte. 2016. “Margaret Atwood: ‘All Dystopias Are Telling You Is to Make Sure You’ve Got a Lot of Canned Goods and a Gun’.” The Guardian, October 15, 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/15/margaret-atwood-interview-english-pen-pinter-prize.
Hunter, Hayden. 2010. “Kenopsia.” Tumblr. http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/27720773573/kenopsia.
Knight, Denise D. Knight. 2000. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Shadow of Racism.” American Literary Realism 32, no. 2 (Winter): 159–169.
Lanser, Susan S. 1989. “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America.” Feminist Studies 15, no. 3 (Autumn): 415–441.
Levine, Sara. 2017. “These Margaret Atwood Signs Are Chilling.” Bustle, January 21, 2017. https://www.bustle.com/p/these-margaret-atwood-signs-at-the-womens-march-will-give-you-the-chills-32074.
Mason, Mary Ann. 2011. “The Pyramid Problem.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 9, 2011. https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Pyramid-Problem/126614.
Merriam Webster Dictionary. n.d. “Definition of Dystopia.” Accessed December 8, 2017. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dystopia.
Mertsock, John S. 2001. “Racism and Xenophobia in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ Herland and With Her in Ourland.” English Master’s Thesis, Brockport, NY: The College at Brockport: State University of New York. https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/eng_theses/76.
Sanghani, Radhika. 2015. “The Uncomfortable Truth about Racism and the Suffragettes.” The Telegraph, October 6, 2015. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11914757/Racism-and-the-suffragettes-the-uncomfortable-truth.html.
Weinbaum, Alys E. 2013. “The Afterlife of Slavery and the Problem of Reproductive Freedom.” Social Text 31, no. 2 (June): 49–68.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Niccolini, A.D. (2018). Teaching and Learning Within Feminist Dystopias. In: Shelton, S., Flynn, J., Grosland, T. (eds) Feminism and Intersectionality in Academia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90590-7_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90590-7_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90589-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90590-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)