Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

“Extinction is forever”: Ecofeminism and apocalypse in Louise Lawrence’s Young Adult short fiction

Deininger, Michelle and Scammell, Gemma 2021. “Extinction is forever”: Ecofeminism and apocalypse in Louise Lawrence’s Young Adult short fiction. Vakoch, Douglas A., ed. Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction, Routledge Studies in World Literatures and the Environment, Routledge, pp. 83-97. (10.4324/9781003152989-9)

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Louise Lawrence’s young adult fictions played a significant role in shaping the imagination of young adult readers of science fiction in Britain from the 1970s to the 1990s. What made her work so pertinent, and continues to resonate, is her engagement with issues that we would now identify as ecofeminist. Her short stories, collected together in Extinction Is Forever (1990), interrogate the role of women and the destruction of the environment in the context of capitalist over-expansion, the fracturing of established communities, and the consequences of nuclear war. Set on alien planets, star ships, and in utopian and dystopian futures, the stories repeatedly unsettle and reimagine the relationship between women, the environment, and capitalism. As a collection of cautionary tales, Extinction Is Forever warns its young adult audience that if humanity is to survive, it cannot continue to ignore the consequences of environmental destruction. This chapter explores the way in which Lawrence deploys the trope of the mentor–mentee relationship to educate and transform readers’ understanding of global issues that remain politically pressing. It will also examine Lawrence’s portrayal of utopias and dystopias built upon the ashes of capitalist consumer culture, in which exploitation and mass waste were considered desirable despite the devastating environmental consequences. Extinction Is Forever, this chapter argues, offers alternative social ideologies which resituate the importance of the environment over technology. Finally, this chapter explores the representation of the environment itself, drawing on aspects of ecophobia and ecoterror, to demonstrate the extent to which Lawrence’s stories pushed the boundaries of young adult fiction. At heart, Lawrence’s fictions embody what is vital about the ecofeminist agenda—to identify and to deconstruct the power relations that oppress both women and the environment, but also to reimagine humanity’s potential for change in a world on the brink of apocalypse.

Item Type: Book Section
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781003152989
Last Modified: 21 Dec 2021 10:45
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/146234

Citation Data

Cited 3 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item