Webliography

Question - “if science fiction in a genre that imagines our future, what happens to gender and race?"

1. Anders, Charlie Jane, Science Fiction is the Literature of Refugees, i09, 2008, retrieved 09/09/10

As a blog post, this article lacks many of the hallmarks people expect from a valuable source, such as a byline by a professor, or a citation in a peer-reviewed journal. It is posted on a blog called i09, which features content ranging widely over books, movies, games, and scientific developments. However, I find it professional and insightful.

I think this post is a fantastic starting point for tackling the issue of race in science fiction. In contrast to the idea that race in science fiction is about colonialism and invasion by the white man, this article looks at the idea of refugees in literature. It breaks down a number of stereotypes and provides textual examples for each – in effect, a huge ‘further reading’ list. The ‘references’ in this list span decades and mediums, ranging from classic graphic novels to recent films.

2. Grace, Dominick M, ‘“The Handmaid’s Tale”: “Historical Notes” and Documentary Subversion’, Science Fiction Studies, vol 25, no 3, 1998, pp481-494, accessed 09/09/10

As the title suggests, the article concerns Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, specifically the so-called ‘Historical Notes’ which appear at the end of the novel. While only a dozen pages long and chronologically disjointed from the rest of the plot, these notes radically change the way the reader engages with the novel. As you’d expect, such influential pages have been the subject of much analysis and debate. I found the article interesting, yet difficult to engage with, as the ‘notes’ are posed as a form of intellectual analysis on the novel, yet are themselves are a mockery or criticism of such intellectual analysis. It made for a very sensitive subject and a very complex article.

While the focus of the article itself is on the construction of the notes and the literary techniques that shape them, I found it drew a number of useful points about the novel itself, which is considered a classic in speculative dystopian fiction and given its focus on women and reproduction, a fantastic resource for an essay on this topic. In my opinion, the most important was Grace’s observation of the cyclical nature of the novel. In the ‘notes’, set hundreds of years after the plot of the novel, which was itself set in our near future, Pieixoto reminds his listeners that they must not judge the Gileans, as they were under unique pressures. Grace observes that the world of 2195 is still subject to most of those pressures themselves. I believe that Grace meant that Atwood was drawing parallels between the society of 2195 and our current society, and the Gileans and our past. From that I believe Atwood’s vision of gender relations in the future was that of a regressive and cyclical society, where women are subject to severe restrictions in their – reproductive, personal, financial, social – rights, followed by a period of relative equality where we congratulate ourselves on our accomplishments. I feel that this is at odds with the majority of popular Science Fiction presentations of gender in the future and thus would be invaluable in an essay on this topic.

3. Hood, Yolanda, ‘Rac(e)ing into the Future: Looking at Race in Recent Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels for Young Adults by Black Authors’, ALAN Review, vol 36, no 3, 2009, pp81-86, accessed 09/09/10

This article is written by a woman of colour and begins with an anecdote about her childhood, when she discovered science fiction, and the lack of coloured characters and role models. While the article is concerned solely with books for children and young-adults, its subject matter is no doubt applicable to adult books as well. Hood cites a 2003 study which showed that only 6% of youth fantasy novels and 5% of youth science fiction novels featured protagonists or secondary characters of colour. The article goes on to discuss the recent increase in black authors and black characters in science fiction and fantasy books for young people, noting the importance of role models with which young people can identify. Hood also notes how different authors engage with the idea of race at different levels – some include coloured characters but treat their race as virtually a non-issue, while for some characters their race is an integral part of their motivation or mission within the story. One thing the article didn’t examine, which I would have found particularly interesting and useful, is the way that existing characters are represented – for example, what percentage were major characters, and what percentage had only bit parts? How many of those characters were cast in roles as the ‘evil villain’, and how many as the ‘hero’? Was the number of coloured protagonists similar in books for girls as well as boys? However, this may have been outside the remit of the text as it is presented more as a feature article than an in-depth review.

4. Newitz, Annalee , When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like ‘Avatar’?, i09, 2009, retrieved 09/09/10

This article is written in response to James Cameron’s Avatar, which has been called a science fiction version of Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves. This article recognises that genres such as science fiction allow people to play out their fantasies, and as the majority of the industry is white, there exists at least a subsection of the genre which is tied up with the problematic areas of white fantasy. Newitz notes that white fantasies about race such as Avatar go beyond a desire to assimilate with the ‘subjected’ race (becoming race traitors), and instead the hero becomes the leader of the oppressed people. Stories like this have little to do with the ‘exotic’ race they supposedly feature, and more to do with making white people feel good about themselves. I think this article is a great starting point for an essay, suggesting a number of other texts which treat race in a similar way, such as Dune and District 9. The concept that science fiction, whilst being nominally set in the future, harks back to and endorses colonial plots and values would be an interesting one to unpick in an essay.

5. Rudy, Kathy, ‘Ethics, Reproduction, Utopia: Gender and Childbearing in Woman on the Edge of Time and The Left Hand of Darkness’, NWSA Journal, vol 9, no 1, 1997, pp22-38, accessed 09/09/10

The discussion of gender in science fiction in this article is rooted within discussion of reproductive rights and options. The author, a product of the radical feminism of the 70’s and 80’s, is seeking alternatives to the increasingly male dominated area of pregnancy and childbirth. Concerned that the woman’s role is being marginalised, the author looks to science fiction to provide examples for the future. The author has some pretty obvious biases. She identifies herself as a feminist, and favourably discusses separatist utopias, Marxism, and radical equality. However, she does identify and discuss some of the more unusual ways that gender is presented in science fiction. This would be useful for an essay on this topic as it provides not only examples of how gender is presented and directions for further research, but an insight into how this information is interpreted (and potentially applied) by feminists (albeit a sub-section of them).