Distopias de autoria feminina: gênero e religião em o conto de Aia e em a parábola do semeador.

Abstract

This work investigates in the novels The Handmaid’s Tale (2017), by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, and Parable of the Sower (2018), by African-American Octavia Butler, the gender issues related to religiosity present in the works through female protagonists. It was based on the idea of recognizing and bringing dystopian works of female authorship to academic research since there is a long canonical tradition that mostly focuses on analyzing the male works in dystopian literature. Thus, the dystopias of female authorship are delineated by timelessness and by bringing, in their hearts, the problem of the oppressive forces of patriarchy existing in societies, this being a system that permeates the relations between the masculine and the feminine since the beginnings of humanity. We also highlight the discussion about how religion interferes with these unequal gender issues. For this, it is bibliographic and analytical research, used as a theoretical basis, mainly, the texts of Connell and Pearse (2015), Scott (1995), and Perrot (2007) referring to gender studies, and authors such as Umberto Eco (1989), Hilário (2013) and Silva Júnior (2019), which delimited important aspects related to the study of science fiction and dystopia. In this sense, it was clear from the analyses that there are points that converge in both narratives, each bringing protagonists who survive the oppression of the ruling classes, but they had personalities that are different.