Sex, Work and Motherhood: The Impossible Triangle
As indicated by the title, The Impossible Triangle notes the oft impossible nature of combining these three components of life, facilitated by a society that does not provide adequate facilities for doing so, and notes that the poor, single, recently divorced, gay parents or members of any other minority groups are even more disadvantaged. The article then looks at manifestations of this in literature, beginning with film and then more specifically science fiction literature and film. It notes early utopian stories in which women are “no longer oppressed by their biological and nurturing functions" (p. 419). Important also were representations of women’s sexual freedom, including lesbian and multiple partners, and of women as being equal to and working alongside men. Following backlashes to feminism and challenging of rights to abortion, feminist science fiction turned dystopian and arguably “postmodern” (p. 420), acting as a warning against patriarchal oppression of women. A vast array of films are analysed from a feminist perspective, giving weight to the article.
Written by well-known feminist academic, author and Ph.D. E. Ann Kaplan, the nature, intention and authority of the article is clear.
The Space Machine: Baraka and Science Fiction
Dissecting blackness in science fiction, The Space Machine begins by questioning the nature of the relationship between space and race, and also noting the imaginative potential of science fiction for influencing real world change. The article takes the stance of examining particularly ‘black science fiction’, a subgenre in itself, as well as the white dominated beginnings of science fiction, reminiscent of colonial narratives with the difference being that the white “space cowboys" (p. 335) were exploring and claiming for themselves the frontier of space. This similarity to colonial narrative can be seen again as the white astronauts, champions of the “wonders of science” (p. 335), do battle with “nasty” (p. 335) space natives. The article also explores ‘black music’ as a literary device in black science fiction, one that has traditionally “reconfigured social space” (p.336) and so should have the potential to do so in science fiction as well.
Written by Paul Youngquist, an associate professor of English at The Pennsylvania State University, and a writer of “science fiction, black music and British romanticism” (p. 333) the reader is told at the beginning of the article, the article featured in African American Review, an established and esteemed site, in 2003. The ideas engaged with are nonetheless current and the author speaks with authority as an academic and with the intention of engaging with connections between blackness, music, science fiction and real social space. A list of sources is provided.
Race, Science and a Novel: an Interdisciplinary Dialogue
This article analyses a science fiction book, Racists, by Kunal Basu, from four different academic perspectives: a feminist political philosopher, a microbiologist, a continental philosopher and a registered nurse. In the book, two scientists, one black and one white, compete against each other to prove the superiority of their race. The article deals with the concept of “racial genealogy" (p. 228) in science fiction, and also the capacity for this in real life, with reference to racial influence on medical research. The authors recognise the capacity of science fiction to provoke discussion in different fields, from healthcare and biology to feminism and philosophy, always drawing parallels and using real-life examples in a thorough discussion.
Reviewing the book from which this article takes its name, it deals with the presence and meaning of blackness and science fiction film. An engaging review, it details the provocative nature of the book in its analysis of well known and also little before critically explored film, and notes that whilst the book does not offer new theory, analysis stems from “canonical African-American" (p. 271) academia. The first source in this webliography to engage with the trope of ‘blood’ in science fiction, particularly with the idea of white blood being pure and black being deviant, it also analyses “interracial dynamics” (p. 272) and oscillating race relations in contemporary society. The article denotes many useful frameworks provided by the book with which to analyse the representation of race in film. It seems a very different approach from the one taken by Baraka toward analysing blackness in science fiction was taken here, however neither are rendered invalid by these extreme differences.
Afro-Future Females: Black Writers Chart Science Fiction’s Newest New-Wave Trajectory/ Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias/ Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction/ Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women’s Science Fiction
This review was particularly rich in information as it looks at four different scholarly texts all engaging with science fiction from a feminist perspective, but with a variety of different approaches. The relevance and interconnectedness between feminist philosophy, biology and technology is discussed and reflects well on Race, Science and a Novel in the authors’ multidisciplinary discussion of science fiction literature. Again the idea of gendered utopias and dystopias arises, as the article provides a strong argument that neither “feminism or SF has had its day" (p. 1011). The author notes the recurring idea that “the textual practices of reading and writing science fiction have been invested with great hope by feminists... [for] the liberatory possibilities offered” (p.1013) in all the books reviewed.
Published by international journal Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society in 2009, the article is current and was written by Dr Joan Haran, a researcher of social sciences. The material is relevant, and made more interesting for us by the fact the Joan is a blogger herself.
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