What the study found
In Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks and Sophie Mackintosh’s Blue Ticket, state power either marks women as worthy or unworthy of motherhood or forces motherhood on them, creating resentment and division. The study finds that this division weakens the possibility of resistance through community building, while anger and anxiety can also help form communities of fate, meaning communities formed under duress.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors conclude that these novels show how state-sanctioned cruelty targeting women’s freedom and bodily autonomy can be met through resistance, activism, and justice. The study suggests that centering community formation has productive capacities in critical dystopias, that is, dystopian works that also imagine forms of critique and resistance.
What the researchers tested
The article is a literary analysis of Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks (2018) and Sophie Mackintosh’s Blue Ticket (2020). It compares how each novel represents state power, women’s motherhood, and the effects of cruelty on relationships among women.
What worked and what didn't
The abstract says the featured state in both novels produces resentment and division among women. It also says that such division diminishes resistance through community building, but that anger and anxiety can be harnessed into communities of fate. The study also states that the novels demonstrate the productive capacities of community formation by centering resistance, activism, and justice.
What to keep in mind
The available abstract does not describe specific scenes, close readings, or detailed limitations. It also does not provide a broader empirical scope beyond these two novels.
Key points
- The article analyzes Red Clocks and Blue Ticket as critical dystopias.
- It says state power can divide women by assigning or enforcing motherhood.
- The study finds that division can weaken resistance through community building.
- It also says anger and anxiety can form communities of fate under duress.
- The authors conclude that community formation can support resistance, activism, and justice.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- State cruelty reshapes women’s communities in two dystopian novels
- Publication date:
- 2026-03-31
- OpenAlex record:
- View
Get the weekly research newsletter
Stay current with peer-reviewed research without reading academic papers — one filtered digest, every Friday.