Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought“An incisive critical work” that looks at Octavia Butler’s writing, the movies of the Matrix and Alien series—and more—through a feminist lens (Femspec). Feminist thinkers and writers are increasingly recognizing science fiction’s potential to shatter patriarchal and heterosexual norms, while the creators of science fiction are bringing new depth and complexity to the genre by engaging with feminist thewories and politics. This book maps the intersection of feminism and science fiction through close readings of science fiction literature by Octavia E. Butler, Richard Calder, and Melissa Scott and the movies The Matrix and the Alien series. Patricia Melzer analyzes how these authors and films represent debates and concepts in three areas of feminist thought: identity and difference, feminist critiques of science and technology, and the relationship among gender identity, body, and desire, including the new gender politics of queer desires, transgender, and intersexed bodies and identities. She demonstrates that key political elements shape these debates, including global capitalism and exploitative class relations within a growing international system; the impact of computer, industrial, and medical technologies on women’s lives and reproductive rights; and posthuman embodiment as expressed through biotechnologies, the body/machine interface, and the commodification of desire. Melzer’s investigation makes it clear that feminist writings and readings of science fiction are part of a feminist critique of existing power relations—and that the alien constructions (cyborgs, clones, androids, aliens, and hybrids) that populate postmodern science fiction are as potentially empowering as they are threatening. |
Contents
PART I | |
Technologies and Gender in Science Fiction Film | |
Resurrection | |
PART III | |
Deviant Bodies Desire and Feminist Politics | |
Genderqueer Identities and Intersexed | |
Conclusion | |
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Alien Constructions Alien Resurrection android anticolonial Anyanwu becomes binary Black Women Calder challenge colonized complex concept consciousness context creates critical cyberpunk cyberspace cyborg feminism Dead Girls debates defined desire destabilize developed discourse dolls dominant Dystopia embodiment existence experiences explore female body feminine feminist science fiction feminist theories figure gender identity genderqueer genetic genre gynoids Haraway heterosexual human hybrid ideology intersexed Judith Judith Butler lesbian Lilim Lilith machines mainstream male Manifesto masculine Matrix metaphor movie narrative nature Nomadic Subjects normative notion Oankali Octavia Butler Octavia E ooloi oppression Parable patriarchal Patternists political postcolonial posthuman postmodern potential power relations problematic produced protagonists queer race racial reality representations reproduction resistance Ripley Ripley’s role Routledge science fiction film science fiction literature science fiction texts sexual difference shapeshifter social species structures subversive Survivor technoscience transgender transgressive trilogy undermines Western Wild Seed woman writing Xenogenesis series Xenogenesis trilogy York