https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i1.012
FEMINISM AND THE POST-APOCALYPTIC IMAGINATION: INTERROGATING GENDER DYNAMICS IN ALIYA WHITELEY’S THE BEAUTY
SHIPRA KAUSHAL
Research Scholar
Department of English and Modern European Languages
University of Allahabad
Abstract: This paper examines feminism, post-apocalyptic imagination and gender dynamics in the novella written by Aliya Whiteley. The study asks how gender dynamics are reshaped in a world without women and whether patriarchy collapses or persists after the apocalypse. Using Feminist theory, the paper explores how gender and power change in a world where women have mostly disappeared. The paper questions otherness, objectification and silencing of women exemplifying in a post-apocalyptic Imaginations. Additionally, the paper reflects whether patriarchy continues even in this post-apocalyptic world? It imagines what the engagement between patriarchy and feminism would be after an apocalypse destroys their present relationship. However, the novella does not end with a clear feminist victory, but it warns the readers about how patriarchy can survive even in a collapsed world, leaving a space to imagine about different futures.
Keywords: Patriarchy, Post apocalypse, Gender roles, Feminism, Resistance, Transformation