Distopias de gênero em contos especulativos de Margaret Atwood e Raphael Carter

Abstract

This thesis analyzes dystopian and gender-centered representations manifested in the speculative short stories "freeforall" (1986), by Margaret Atwood and "Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K.N Sirsi and Sandra Botkin" (1998), by Raphael Carter. Characterized by futuristic temporalities, these narratives raise critical views of identities in relation to the binary models and the stabilizing tendencies regarding gender which are still strongly perceptible in our patriarchal society. I observe the ways in which the literary works (de)construct values and concepts pre-established socially. The study of such (de)construction is carried out by focusing on the intersections between the debates originating from the critical theories on literary genres whose traces are identified in the stories (utopia, dystopia, science fiction) and the knowledge produced in the area of Cultural and Gender Studies. On this interface, emphasis is given to the presence of irony as a major literary strategy, whose functions are approached according to Linda Hutcheon´s propositions, that is used in this work to understand the linguistic communicative interection process in the tales. In Atwood´s short story, I focus on the spaces described in relation to the social dynamics and on the protagonist portrayal so as to argue that such elements engender metaphors for a compulsory heterosexual system whose aim lies on human reproduction by means of the imposition of strict gender norms and the practice of eugenics. Therefore, people are placed in different spaces, predetermined according to their social funcion. The Houses and Freeforall are the spatialities of this comunity. The first one is the place of the chosen, and the last one, unsderstood as deviant heterotopic space, following the theory developed by Foucault, is destined to those deviant from the norm.The word play in the title of the tale and the protagonist's analyses, allow a study with irony. In Carter´s short story, the (de)construction of crystallized gender notions is achieved by means of parodic irony evidenced by the critical incorporation of scientific practices and academic discourses. Finally I argue that, mainly by resorting to the strategy of irony, the fictional representation of gender dystopias in Atwood and Carter question cultural gender configurations which have been conventionalized in/by androcentric society. Thus, these works may be interpreted in light of a feminist critical reading that, based on the Butlerian conception regarding the pressing need to undo gender, seeks to deconstruct normative values and views.