The blazing world and the hunger games : treatment of gender in post-apocalyptic narratives

Abstract

Post-apocalyptic genres then become a plausible breeding ground for a balanced and equal gender dynamics; clean slate for women’s imaginations. This project seeks to analyze the subversive potential of post-apocalyptic genres in terms of gender dynamics as well as to investigate their effectiveness in doing so by comparing fictions that stem from the 17th century to the 21st century, namely Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World and Gary Ross’s The Hunger Games (2012). The evaluation will then serve to reveal the gender balance that has been and continues to be ubiquitous in today’s world despite the exhaustive efforts undertaken by feminist activists. In addition, this project will be able to compare and scrutinize the progressiveness of contemporary society’s gender dynamics.