Thesis
"Servants. Of. The. Race": gender and sex performativity and Utopian possibilities in feminist science fiction
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/104516
Abstract
"'Servants. Of. The. Race'": Gender and Sex Performativity and Utopian Possibilities in Feminist Science Fiction" analyzes how twentieth century feminist science fiction challenges and reconfigures officially sanctioned gender and sex identities. During the twentieth century, women faced constant pressure from their societies to conform to heteronormative gender and sex scripts. The first and second waves of feminism allowed women to explore new ways to reconfigure their identities and created the opportunity for feminist authors to utilize science fiction to explore new worlds in which a multitude of identities flourish. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, Joanna Russ's The Female Man, and Marge Piercy's He, She, and It are three important novels for examining manipulation of gender and sex identities throughout the twentieth century, as well as Judith Butler's theory on performativity. These authors redefine women's roles within mothering, sexuality, and cyborg theory to show that women cannot be confined to heteronormative identities but must be allowed to determine their own gender and sex roles. While the characters in the novels are often successful at rewriting their identities, they face constant discrimination from their respective societies. Consequently, we are able to look ahead to Piercy's novel as a dystopian critique of the social conservative takeover in the 1980s after the sexual revolution. Even though our society is not yet ready for multiple gender and sex identities, as argued by Jose Esteban Muñoz in his work on queer futurity, these novels inspire hope in women and other minority cultures for a utopian existence.
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Details
- Title
- "Servants. Of. The. Race"
- Creators
- Allison Marie Graves
- Contributors
- Carol Siegel (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525388301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis