Where have all the mothers gone? Re-presenting the maternal and the mother–daughter relationship in dystopian fiction with young adult heroines

Abstract

My PhD project investigates the complex presentation and absenting of mother characters in twenty-first-century dystopian fiction featuring purportedly empowered young adult heroines. I use a literary and cultural studies approach to analyse context and representations of mothers in this genre, and draw on scholarship from the field of motherhood studies. Within my exegesis and creative work I propose new possibilities of empowerment and agency for maternal characters and the mother–daughter relationship in dystopian fiction.