A Feminine-Coded Future Representations of the Feminist Sublime and Technological Embodiment in Select Indian Dystopian Fiction

The research surrounding Indian dystopias has revealed a preoccupation with their correspondence to real-world societal challenges. Escape (2015) by Manjula Padmanabhan and Machinehood (2021) by S. B. Divya is no different – the settings of both texts provide the key to deciphering systemic issues such as climate change, female foeticide, and wage exploitation. This article explores the evolution of the sublime as represented in the narratives to account for the emergence of a feminist version of the sublime. In Escape, the fascist State apparatus has conducted a systematic femicide of its population. While Meiji owes her survival to her uncles who dosed her with hormonal suppressants to arrest her development, she also internalises certain problematic ideas of what it means to be a woman. She reclaims her subjecthood when she realises the power that she wields over the transgressive desires of her uncles. Hence, the presence of the sexed and forbidden female body in Escape is significant in its subversion of the traditionally masculinist-coded sublime. This article also uncovers the biotechnological sublime as an event wherein biological materiality is negated to various ends. In the wake of cyborg technology, Welga’s refusal to be tethered to biological destiny in Machinehood forces the reader to grapple with alternative reconceptualisations of womanhood that do not hinge on the body and its functions. Further, this article also asserts that the neocolonial settings of both Escape and Machinehood affect subjecthood and its ability to evoke the feeling of the sublime in specific ways.