Fathers and Daughters; or, Social Reproduction in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Critics have argued that contemporary literature and culture fail to offer compelling alternatives to a present marred by capitalist overdevelopment and environmental destruction. This essay finds counterevidence to that claim in recent dystopian fictions such as the films Blade Runner 2049, Interstellar, Children of Men, and Train to Busan and the novel The Children of Men, which prominently feature teamwork between fathers (or father surrogates) and daughters in a world where the human species faces possible extinction. Representing care work as heroism, these works not only seek to redefine what counts as professional competence in a crisis but further model the passage of power from an exhausted patriarchy to a younger generation of women more alert to the necessity of creating a world that values reproductive labor as much as, if not more than, productive labor.