Swastika Night

Last updated

Swastika Night
Swastika Night.jpg
First edition
Author Murray Constantine
Language English
Genre Dystopian
Publisher Victor Gollancz Ltd
Publication date
1937
Publication place United Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages287 pp
ISBN 0-935312-56-0
OCLC 12162019
823/.912 19
LC Class PR6003.U45 S8 1985

Swastika Night is a futuristic novel by British writer Katharine Burdekin, writing under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. First published in 1937 and subsequently as a Left Book Club selection in 1940, the novel depicts a world where Adolf Hitler's claim that Nazism would create a "Thousand Year Reich" is realised. Forgotten for many years, until republication in 1985 in England and the United States, [1] literary historian Andy Croft has described Swastika Night as "the most original of all the many anti-fascist dystopias of the late 1930s." [2]

Contents

Set hundreds of years in the future, this dystopia envisions a sterile, dying Nazi Reich in which Jews have long since been eradicated, Christians are marginalised, and Hitler is venerated as a God. [3] A "cult of masculinity" prevails, homosexuality has become the norm, and a "reduction of women" has occurred: deprived of all rights, women are kept in concentration camps, their sole value residing in their reproductive roles.

The novel bears striking similarities to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four , published more than a decade later: the past has been destroyed and history is rewritten, language is distorted, few books exist apart from propaganda, and a secret book is the only witness to the past. [4]

Plot synopsis

Swastika Night takes place in a world where the Nazis and Empire of Japan defeated their enemies and conquered the world (from a modern perspective, the novel is an alternate history in which the Nazis won World War II, though at the time of its writing the war had not broken out and it was a work of speculative future fiction.) It follows the protagonist Alfred, an Englishman in his 30s who works as a ground mechanic for the German Empire in the Salisbury aerodrome. Alfred comes to Germany on a holy pilgrimage to see the holy sites of Hitlerism, the religion in this Nazi-dominated world. These sites include the holy forest and the sacred aeroplane in Munich with which Hitler won the Twenty Years' War by personally flying to Moscow, it is said. In this world Hitler is seen as a seven foot tall, long blonde-haired, blue-eyed man who was “exploded” from the head of God the Thunderer and was a god in his own right. He is preached about by "Knights" (a cross between the traditional, feudal knight and a priest) who pass this job down from father to son.

When Alfred arrives at his Nazi friend Hermann's village, he meets the Knight there, an old man by the name of Friedrich von Hess; Hermann works on this Knight's land. The Knight reveals to Alfred about how history was distorted by a man who even when confronted by the truth proclaimed Hitler a god. The writing of this man's book caused the Nazis to burn everything that contradicted the fact – even the book itself – and also anything that revealed life before the empire or during Hitler's life. An ancestor of von Hess wrote about the truth and entrusted the secret to his descendants as he also obtained and preserved a picture of Hitler and a young blonde woman that Alfred originally mistakes for Hitler. This convinces the already sceptical Alfred that Hitler was not a god when he sees that Hitler was a small, brown-haired man with a paunch.

Alfred then vows to return women to how they should be as in the novel they have become ugly things, with shaved heads and no self-respect, used solely for reproduction and kept in a place called the women's quarters from where they cannot escape and are seen as little more than animals. He also vows that he shall teach what is in his book to his fellow Englishmen and others so that eventually they can cause the shattering of the German Empire as the belief that holds it together falls apart. He presses that it must be an ideological, spiritual rebellion as a violent rebellion would be crushed by the occupation armies of the Germans.

Towards the end of the novel Alfred returns to Britain with the book, where he starts teaching his son from it. A few weeks after finishing the book Alfred, his son and Hermann (who followed Alfred to Britain) are almost caught by Nazi soldiers. While Fred (Alfred's son) escapes with the book, Hermann and Alfred are discovered, whereupon Hermann charges the soldiers and is killed. After this happens the soldiers try to discover the reason behind Hermann and Alfred being there, but are unsuccessful. A soldier then kicks Hermann's corpse, causing Alfred to fly into a rage and get beaten into unconsciousness; the beating is so bad that Alfred wakes up in hospital two days later and gets to talk to Fred one last time about continuing his work just before he dies of his injuries.

Reception

John Clute described Swastika Night as "a scathing feminist anatomy of war, sexism and power" and lists the novel as one of the "classic titles" of inter-war science fiction. [1] Adam Roberts stated "Burdekin's pre-war story reads as horribly prescient and its feminist emphasis ... provides a very valid critique of fascism." [5]

In his monograph Desire and Empathy in Twentieth-Century Dystopian Fiction, Thomas Horan argues that Burdekin introduces sociopolitical enlightenment, ethics, and hope via "queer desire". [6] Swastika Night has been described as a "pioneering feminist critique". [7]

Swastika Night was a Left Book Club selection in 1940—one of the few works of fiction thus honoured. [8]

Bibliography

See also

Related Research Articles

Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction focused on such feminist themes as: gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist SF is political because of its tendency to critique the dominant culture. Some of the most notable feminist science fiction works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.

Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions are recognized and valued, worlds that explore the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that move beyond gender.

Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers. Dystopian fiction offers the opposite: the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. Some novels combine both genres, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take depending on its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other types of speculative fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Doria Russell</span> American novelist

Mary Doria Russell is an American novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon R. Dickson</span> American science fiction writer (1923–2001)

Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction writer. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000.

<i>Education for Death</i> 1943 animated short film by Clyde Geronimi

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an American animated anti-Nazi propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on January 15, 1943, by RKO Radio Pictures, shown in theaters with Fighting Frontier. The film is directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, and Bill Tytla. The short is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by American author Gregor Ziemer. The film features the story of Hans, a boy born and raised in Nazi Germany, his indoctrination in the Hitlerjugend, and his eventual march to war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occultism in Nazism</span> Speculation about Nazism and occultism

The association of Nazism with occultism occurs in a wide range of theories, speculation, and research into the origins of Nazism and into Nazism's possible relationship with various occult traditions. Such ideas have flourished as a part of popular culture since at least the early 1940s, and gained renewed popularity starting in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Nazi Germany</span> National flag of Germany between September 1935 and May 1945

The flag of Nazi Germany, officially called the Reich and National Flag, featured a red background with a black swastika on a white disk. This flag came into use initially as the banner of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party, after its foundation in 1920. Shortly after the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, this flag was adopted as mandatory for use, while the national one was the black-white-red triband of the German Empire. One year after death of President Paul von Hindenburg, this arrangement ended. The Nazis banned usage of the imperial tricolour, labelling it as "reactionary", and made their party flag the national flag of Germany as a part of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, which it remained until the end of World War II and the fall of the Third Reich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzy McKee Charnas</span> American writer (1939–2023)

Suzy McKee Charnas was an American novelist and short story writer, writing primarily in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. She won several awards for her fiction, including the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the James Tiptree Jr. Award. A selection of her short fiction was collected in Stagestruck Vampires and Other Phantasms in 2004. The Holdfast Chronicles, a four-volume story written over the course of almost thirty years was considered to be her major accomplishment in writing. The series addressed the topics of feminist dystopia, separatist societies, war, and reintegration. Another of her major works, The Vampire Tapestry, has been adapted into a play called "Vampire Dreams".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War Merit Cross</span> Nazi World War II decoration

The War Merit Cross was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A "de-Nazified" version of the War Merit Cross was reissued in 1957 by the Bundeswehr for its veterans.

Charlotte Haldane was a British feminist writer. Her second husband was the biologist J.B.S. Haldane.

<i>The Iron Dream</i> 1972 novel by Norman Spinrad

The Iron Dream is a metafictional 1972 alternate history novel by American author Norman Spinrad. The book has a nested narrative that tells a story within a story. On the surface, the novel presents a post-apocalyptic adventure tale entitled Lord of the Swastika, written by an alternate-history Adolf Hitler shortly before his death in 1953. In this timeline, Hitler emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1919 after the Great War, and used his modest artistic skills to become first a pulp science fiction illustrator and later a successful writer, telling lurid, purple-prosed, pro-fascism stories under a thin science fiction veneer. The nested narrative is followed by a faux scholarly analysis by a fictional literary critic, Homer Whipple, which is said to have been written in 1959.

Daphne Patai is an American scholar and author. She is professor emeritus of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her PhD is in Brazilian literature, but her early work also focused on utopian and dystopian fiction. She is the daughter of the anthropologist Raphael Patai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharine Burdekin</span> British novelist (1896–1963)

Katharine Penelope Burdekin was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction concerned with social and spiritual matters. She was the younger sister of Rowena Cade, creator of the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Several of her novels have been described as feminist utopian/dystopian fiction. She also wrote under the name Kay Burdekin and under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. Daphne Patai unraveled "Murray Constantine's" true identity while doing research on utopian and dystopian fiction in the mid-1980s.

<i>The Sound of His Horn</i> 1952 novel by John William Wall

The Sound of His Horn is a 1952 dystopian time travel/alternative history novel by the senior British diplomat John William Wall, written under the pseudonym Sarban. The novel has been included in several lists of the greatest fantasy novels of all time.

Gender has been an important theme explored in speculative fiction. The genres that make up speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, supernatural fiction, horror, superhero fiction, science fantasy and related genres, have always offered the opportunity for writers to explore social conventions, including gender, gender roles, and beliefs about gender. Like all literary forms, the science fiction genre reflects the popular perceptions of the eras in which individual creators were writing; and those creators' responses to gender stereotypes and gender roles.

<i>The Vengeance of Rome</i> 2006 novel by Michael Moorcock

The Vengeance of Rome is a historical fiction novel by English author Michael Moorcock, published by Jonathan Cape in 2006. It is the fourth and final in the Pyat Quartet tetralogy, preceded by Jerusalem Commands.

A relatively common motif in speculative fiction is the existence of single-gender worlds or single-sex societies. These fictional societies have long been one of the primary ways to explore implications of gender and gender-differences in science fiction and fantasy. Many of these predate a widespread distinction between gender and sex and conflate the two.

<i>Weaver</i> (Baxter novel) 2008 novel by Stephen Baxter

Weaver is an alternate history and science fiction novel by British writer Stephen Baxter. It is the fourth and final novel in his Time's Tapestry quartet, which deals with psionic broadcast of history-altering content within trans-temporal lucid dreams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II</span> Alternate history scenario

A hypothetical military victory of the Axis powers over the Allies of World War II (1939–1945) is a common topic in speculative literature. Works of alternative history (fiction) and of counterfactual history (non-fiction) include stories, novels, performances, and mixed media that often explore speculative public and private life in lands conquered by the coalition, whose principal powers were Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy.

References

  1. 1 2 Clute, John (1995). Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 121, 215. ISBN   0751302023.
  2. Hopkins, Chris (2006). English Fiction in the 1930s: Language, Genre, History. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 138. ISBN   0826489389.
  3. D. Shaw (19 September 2000). Women, Science and Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 42–. ISBN   978-0-230-28734-1.
  4. For a comparative reading of these elements of the two dystopias, see George McKay (1994). 'Metapropaganda - self-reading dystopian fiction: Katharine Burdekin's Swastika Night and George Orwell's 1984. Science-Fiction Studies 21(3): November.
  5. Roberts, Adam. The History of Science Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   0333970225 (p.171).
  6. "Katharine Burdekin's Swastika Night, a Gay Romance". ResearchGate. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  7. Gregory Claeys, "The Origins of Dystopia" in Claeys,(ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN   0521886651 (p.126).
  8. "Left Book Club | Series | LibraryThing". LibraryThing.com. Retrieved 22 October 2024.

Further reading

Mentioned in