The subtext of the power hierarchy behind rape disturbs its positionality as a violent expression of bodily desire. In feminist dystopian narratives, power over the body – in its creation, usage and disciplining – is a central theme. The heterogeneous approaches of these dystopian narratives to sexual violence utilizes cognitive estrangement in order to make statements about power itself. In Ros Anderson’s The Hierarchies (2020) and Jennie Melamed’s Gather the Daughters (2017), the female posthuman and human suffer from sexual violence from their creators/fathers. The ethics of these interactions are left questionable, but not condemned by the narratives themselves. Sexual violence becomes a visceral expression of power instituted by the respective societies over the female rather than an expression of male desire. I posit that these contemporary feminist dystopian texts explore human and posthuman subjectivities in relation to sexual violence. Each of these texts attempts to portray sexual violence as an expression of power either instituted already in a world by means of norms and traditions, or in the process of being a tool for enforcing patriarchal power relations. I conclude that sexual violence in these texts is a means of constituting identities and maintaining social hierarchies, both being complementary acts to create and sustain conflict.
ORCID: 
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)