Subverting patriarchy

One of the most innovative examples of the use of fantastic forms in recent feminist fiction is the work of East German author Irmtraud Morgner. Little known outside German-speaking countries, her unique blend of fantastic realism testifies both to the subversive nature of a literature of fantasy and the transgressive power of a feminist writing practise. This book looks at the way Morgner uses fantasy both as a form of feminist critique of the history of patriarchy and as an anticipatory device to test the viability of feminist alternatives. Compensatory rather then escapist, in Morgner's writing the fantastic strives to make visible those aspects of female culture and women's experience previously suppressed by the dominant culture of patriarchy. The disruption caused to the social order by the intrusion of the fantastic provides the impetus for a radical investigation of the ideology of gender underpinning the dominant Enlightenment discourses on the nature of science, history and rationality.