As this research focuses on the female protagonist in young adult dystopian literature, it is necessary to know the meaning of “dystopia”. John Stuart Mills first used the term dystopia in 1868 and the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary now defines it as, “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives” (Merriam, 2018). It began from the Greek ‘dis topos’, meaning ‘a bad place. Dystopian literature is a genre that lends itself for feminist criticism and is a platform for writers to showcase women as leaders and role models, because “utopia and dystopia create new worlds, establish genre, and critique gender roles, traditions, and values” (Wilson, 2014). Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate control, bureaucratic control, technological control, and philosophical or religious control.
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Young adult dystopian fiction has changed the role of the female protagonist in ways other genres have yet to approach, placing female characters in a position to “recreate the worlds in which they live, making their societies more egalitarian, more progressive, and ultimately, more free” (Day, Green-Barteet, and Montz 2016, p. 3). Similarly, the story that happens in Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen shows the female protagonist fight against the dystopian world and would like to recreate the
Young adult dystopian fiction has changed the role of the female protagonist in ways other genres have yet to approach, placing female characters in a position to “recreate the worlds in which they live, making their societies more egalitarian, more progressive, and ultimately, more free” (Day, Green-Barteet, and Montz 2016, p. 3). Similarly, the story that happens in Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen shows the female protagonist fight against the dystopian world and would like to recreate the