If science fiction is a genre that imagines our future, what happens to gender and race?(applied to literary or cinematic science fiction)
***
K. McGinnis, ‘Gender Performance, Transgression and the Cyborg in Battlestar Galactica’
McGinnis’ critically engages the science fiction genre and how it represents gender and the cyborg. McGinnis criticises science fiction as a genre which has great potential to transgress and develop new ideas of gender. However she argues that most television or cinematic science fict argument is that female characters in Battlestar Galactica resist this representation, and provide an ‘oppositional performance of gender’. She makes reference to Donna Harraway’s ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ and to the placement of the cyborg (from AI to those with prosthetics) as ‘the other’ in many works of speculative fiction, and in our everyday society. She goes on to analyse two of the Battlestar Galactica characters, President Laura Roslin and Lieutenant Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace, who both transgress patriarchal gender structures. She concludes that works of science fiction like Battlestar Galactica make the genre a site of liberation, where many other works of the genre still fall into using traditional gender binaries. This article provides some excellent source material for answering, the question. It is furthermore very suitable for use as a reference, as it is an academic article (if by an undergraduate) and thus subject to peer review.
***
J. Marchesani ,‘Science Fiction and Fantasy’
Marchesani provides criticism of both science fiction and fantasy as a genre. His focus is the constructions of gender and sexuality in the broad ‘speculative fiction’ genre. He also provides a brief genealogy of the genre. His criticism is that frequently science fiction and fantasy use stereotypical characterisations of both gender and of sexuality. His article covers a huge range of different authors including Ursula K. Le Guin and Samuel R. Delaney. Marchesani gives many examples of transgressive constructions of gender and sexuality in science fiction. The constructions he references include depictions of entirely one-gender or one sexuality communities, sexual relationships between clones, anti-patriarchal female characterisation and homosexual relationships between a male human and male android. Marchesani’s article provides and wealth of information on the topic of gender and sexuality in science fiction and would be a useful reference in answering the guiding question.
***
Jones’ article covers in some detail the politics of race in the genre of speculative fiction. It is however news article and primarily engages with people, not theory. Jone’s interviews several African-American science fiction authors, who articulate varied and interesting perspectives on the politics of race in science fiction. They discuss the genres potential for new politics of race, and a reconstruction and deconstruction of the idea. Jones’ also articulates their disappointment with traditional science fiction author’s very ‘colonial’ conceptions or race, usually writing narratives of planetary colonisation or where a different species (be they aliens or orcs) take on the other and are vilified. However Jones’ article is non scholarly and offers little in the way of deconstruction or literary and cultural theory which puts limit on its use. It does though, remain a useful reference purely for its engagement with racially typed ‘speculative fiction’ authors, and the politics of race in the genre.
***
T. Atkinson, ‘Dealing with Dragons: gender and sexuality in manga’
Atkinson blog post explores the ideas of gender and sexuality that arise from the manga comic genre. The post was inspired from a discussion held between two librarians on the topic of manga. The ideas that are regularly presented in manga, suggests Atkinson, are those of any good young adult fiction, that of self identity, gender and sexuality. Atkinson further suggests that for many of its teen readers manga can become a vehicle through which they can experience varied interpretations of the world around them. The comic genre deals with heterosexuality, bisexuality, one’s place in society and interpretations of gender. Atkinson closes the entry by referring back to the librarians’ discussion, where they left the debate open ended as to whether the genre would help to redefine gender and sexuality amongst young adults, or simply act as escapism. While Atkinson’s post is not a scholarly resource, many of the ideas and issues that arise in it are relevant in some way to the guiding question. The genre of manga arguably sits within the broad spectrum of ‘speculative fiction’ (in many cases science fiction) and the blog post remains interesting and potentially worthy of mention.
***
Race In Sci-Fi/Fantasy’, Parabasis,
In this blog post the authors of Parabasis explore the translation of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice into a television series. The authors suggest that many aspects of the book will become hard to portray on public television, due to sexuality explicit and transgressive material, such as a mutually satisfying sexual relationship between a 13 year old girl and a middle aged man. Furthermore the story initially characterises one of its human communities as ‘the other’ and they are slowly humanised over the series. The authors lament the fact that typically the science fiction genre has one dimensional depictions of race, referencing the alien species in Star Trek. They go on to discuss the works of Samuel R. Delaney and Ursula K. Le Guin as exceptions to this general trend of racial representation. The authors highlight that the complicated social dynamics of Song of Fire and Ice could prove uncomfortable to the series’ audience. While this is a blog post, Parabasis has quite some fame amongst journals and newspapers, and is edited by several authors, and posts on a range of cultural subjects. This mitigates in part the fact that it is not a scholarly article. The post does have a couple important things to say about race in science fiction. While the post is not suitable for extensive analysis and formulation of an answer to the guiding question, it is useful to expand on ideas and issues that may come up, and to provide some interesting quotations.
Bibliography:
Race In Sci-Fi/Fantasy’, Parabasis, 2010, retrieved 8th of September 2010, <http://parabasis.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/race-in-scififantasy.html>
Atkinson, T, ‘Dealing with Dragons: gender and sexuality in manga’, TOR.com, 2009, retrieved 8th of September 2010, < http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/02/ya-and-manga>
Jones,V.E., Race, the final frontier: Black science-fiction writers bring a unique perspective to the genre, www.boston.com, 2007, retrieved 8th of September 2010 <http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/07/31/race_the_final_frontier/?page=2>
Marchesani , J, ‘Science Fiction and Fantasy’, www.glbtq.com, 2002,<http://www.glbtq.com/literature/scifi_fantasy.html>
McGinnis, K, ‘Gender Performance, Transgression and the Cyborg in Battlestar Galactica’, Occulus, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2010, retrieved 8th of September 2010, JUROSonline.com <http://www.dsq-sds.org/index.php/juros/article/viewFile/1256/1267>
***
No comments:
Post a Comment