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Bouwer, Amy (2025) Contemporary Cassandras: Margaret Atwood and the rise of the feminist antiprediction. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

This thesis explores an emergent wave of dystopian women writers that deliberately extend the tradition of The Handmaid’s Tale and echo its now widespread feminist call to action. These ‘contemporary Cassandras’ elaborate Margaret Atwood’s theory that ‘[i]f the future can be described in detail, maybe it won’t happen,’ predicting potential futures in their hopes that they will incite a resistant response in readers. Drawing on Atwood’s neologism, I contend that the feminist ‘antiprediction’ warrants critical investigation as a new utopian subgenre that responds to post-2016 cultural crisis whilst invoking a distinctly Gileadean discourse. Brewed in a tumultuous socio-political climate epitomised by Brexit, Donald Trump’s first presidency, and #MeToo, novels such as The Power, Future Home of the Living God, Red Clocks, The Farm, Sorrowland and, of course, The Testaments not only reflect a resurgence of interest in Atwood’s ‘feminist parable’ but also reinscribe her visions for the future.

The eruption of this new speculative feminism provides a timely opportunity to investigate literature as a site of confluence between real and imagined futures. Though aligned with the popular and critical resurgence of interest in The Handmaid’s Tale, this research is carefully positioned to interrogate its legacy within contemporary dystopian discourses. Ultimately, I pose two questions vital to Atwood studies and to the entanglements of literary ethics and feminist politics. Firstly, how is The Handmaid’s Tale’s legacy kindled by contemporary women’s dystopian writing? And secondly, how does this shape not only the antiprediction’s vision of the future, but also the feminist utopian imaginary implicit in its calls to action?

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Green, Matthew J. A. Evans, Joel
Keywords:	Margaret Atwood, Atwood, Handmaid's Tale, Testaments, feminist writing, antiprediction, speculative feminism, dystopian fiction
Subjects:	P Language and literature > PN Literature (General) > PN 80 Criticism P Language and literature > PS American literature
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Arts > School of English
Item ID:	81799
Depositing User:	Bouwer, Amy
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2025 04:40
Last Modified:	09 Dec 2025 04:40
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/81799

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