Synopses & Reviews
Published in 1937, twelve years before Orwell's 1984, this novel projects a totally male-controlled fascist world that has eliminated women as we know them. They are breeders, kept as cattle, while men in this post-Hitlerian world are embittered automatons, fearful of all feelings, having abolished all history, education, creativity, books, and art. Not even the memory of culture remains. The plot centers on a "misfit" who asks, as readers must, "How could this have happenned?" Ann J. Lane calls the novel a "brilliant, chilling dystopia." "This is a powerful, haunting vision of the inner and outer worlds of male violence."-Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884-1933
Synopsis
Published in 1937, twelve years before Orwell's 1984, Swastika Night projects a totally male-controlled fascist world that has eliminated women as we know them. Women are breeders, kept as cattle, while men in this post-Hitlerian world are embittered automatons, fearful of all feelings, having abolished all history, education, creativity, books, and art. The plot centers on a "misfit" who asks, "How could this have happened?"
Synopsis
Published in 1937, this novel projects a brutal, totally male-controlled fascist world. The women are breeders, and the men have abolished all history, education, and art. The plot centers on a British misfit who dares to ask, How could this have happened? Burdekin's novel explores the connection between gender and polititcal power and anticipates modern feminist science fiction. Readers will be reminded of 1984 and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland and note the sharp contrast between the woman-centered world of her land and the womanless one of Swastika Night.