Uchronias, or alternate histories, are a literary genre that enables us to explore the past, play with it, and even transcend it. These narratives speculate on what might have been, but never was, imagining alternative versions to our historiographical reality, and often confronting us with the implications of such scenarios. Despite its undeniable aesthetic and social potential, this genre is commonly overlooked by scholarly studies, particularly with regard to female-authored novels.
This study seeks to fill this gap and analyse the representations of women and female agency in alternate histories written by women writers, exploring how these narratives reflect and challenge historical constructions of womanhood(s). Similarly, given uchronias\' dual nature - both speculative and historiographical - this book examines the experiences of women in the fictional worlds, compares them with our historical reality, and points out many of the gendered myths, prejudices, and social expectations behind historical and literary depictions of women. Moreover, it aims to draw attention to the emerging yet still underexplored female uchronic tradition, while highlighting the political and social potential of uchronias - not only to reinterpret the past, but also to question and, perhaps, transform the present.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


1.Introduction 1


2.Theoretical Framework 9
2.1.What is History? 9
2.1.1.History vs. Historiography 12
2.1.2.Subjectivity and Unavailability of Sources: A Historical Truth Never Completed 14
2.2.Towards the Writing of \'Other\' Historiographies 15
2.2.1.Revisionism and Speculation in Historical Fiction 17
2.2.2.Counterfactual History: An Instrument from Academic Historiography 20
2.3.The Genre: Uchronia or Alternate History? 21
2.3.1.Etymology, Origins, and Development 21
2.3.2.Features of Alternate Histories 25
2.3.3.Classifications 27
2.3.4.A Family Tree for Uchronias 31
2.3.5.What if...Women had Written Uchronias? 32
2.4.Gender Criticism and the Literary Female Tradition 35
2.5.Feminist Narratology 36


3.Uchronian Narratives of Political Power: Narrating the Political Woman in Eleanor vs. Ike 41
3.1.Dilemmas of a Political Uchronia or Eleanor vs. Eleanor 44
3.1.1.Womanhood vs. Political Womanhood 44
3.1.2.The Male Shadow vs. Women\'s Own Merits 47
3.1.3.Exceptionality or Dewomanization 51
3.1.4.(Positive) Political Womanhood and (Unconvincing) Political Manhood 55
3.2.Between Political Women and Political Wives 57
3.2.1.Political Women: Suffragism as a First Step 59
3.2.2.Political Wives or \'Behind Every Great Man...\' 63
3.3.Conclusion of the Chapter 69


4.Uchronian Narratives of Agency and Otherness: Between \'Angels\' and \'Madwomen\' in The Big Lie 71
4.1.The Angel in the House and the Madwoman 74
4.2.Angels in the House 75
4.2.1.Jessika Keller: The Heroine that Never Was 77
4.2.2.Miriam Keller: The \'Perfect\' Angel in the House 84
4.3.Madwomen on the Block 87
4.3.1.Frau Hart: Producing a \'Madwoman\' 88
4.3.2.Clementine Hart: Young \'Madwomen\' and Martyrdom 93
4.3.3.Neither Angels nor Demons: Representations of In-betweenness 98
4.4.Conclusion of the Chapter 102


5.Uchronian Spaces for Women:Agency and the Semanticization of Space in My Real Children 105
5.1.Space as a Narrative Continuum: Domestic Spheres - Public Spheres 108
5.2.The Divergent Private Sphere: Houses as (un)safe Spaces 109
5.2.1.The House in the Timeline of Tricia: Oppression 110
5.2.2.