“It’s Not in the Womb the Damage is Done”: Swastika Night as an (Auto)-Critical Dystopian Tale of Resistance

Abstract

When Swastika Night was re-published in 1985, Daphne Patai wrote that Katherine Burdekin’s early Hitler-wins dystopian tale leaves room for hope that one finds lacking in the more famed work of George Orwell’s, noting that Burdekin’s analysis of “hypertrophied masculinity” being the fundamental cause of all miseries we find in her text suggests that humanity can escape from dystopian futures eliminating toxic aspects of their culture. While I agree with Patai, I believe that there needs to be more intra-textual evidence of the ‘hope’ that is to be found in Swastika Night, especially as the story ends with its protagonist dying before he can topples his dystopian world. Building on Patai’s work, I focus on the polyphonic voices of resistance resonating throughout the text, voices that suggest a subversive force capable of undermining the seemingly infallible Reich and heralding a more hopeful future wherein the all human beings are equally respected. Hope in Swastika Night can be found in the critical voices and resistant actions of othered beings, the spirit of whom survives in and through the pre-Hitlerian legends, histories, and folksongs of the dehumanized non-Germans without “the Blood,” the very existence of which exposes the undying nature of resistance. Burdekin’s hopeful scenario of the resistant protagonist envisioning and striving to bring about undiscriminating society does not predicate on a British leader nor a return to a British past. This leads me to interpret Swastika Night as an auto-critical dystopian tale that not only cautions against Nazism, but encourages her readers to turn an critical eye towards their own society that also uses “blood,” race, ethnicity, and gender as justifiable causes for violent obstruction of human rights, abroad and at home.