Original scientific paper
Women and Science Fiction: Analysis of British and American Science Fiction Literature
Ana Maskalan
orcid.org/0000-0001-9969-1507
; Institute for Social Research in Zagreb
Abstract
The article analyzes the literary genre of science fiction and through the historical cross
section of the genre articulates woman’s position as both SF character and SF writer. It is
difficult to define science fiction, since it does not follow literary conventions. However,
common to all SF writings is a sense of wonder that they provoke in a readers mind, i.e.
cognitive estrangement – awareness of the differences between the literary and the real
world, by which a critical analysis of reality and self is produced. Even though an abundance
of topics and various interesting philosophical deliberations is present in this often
condemned genre, women don’t read or write science fiction in the same proportion as
man do. This conclusion is substantiated by historical review of SF topics and writers from
its roots in utopian fantasies of the 17th century and the Gothicism of Mary Shelley,
through the era of the American magazine and the British New Wave, up to cyberpunk. A
conclusion is drawn that the science fiction as a literary genre neglects and humiliates the
female gender, describing women most often as victims or trophies. Women characters are
rare and stereotyped. Women writers are also rare and they often produce under pseudonyms.
Just as science has for centuries excluded women, denying them morality and
mind, science fiction as a genre that often puts science in the centre of its interest assumes
the same attitude. Recently, through appearance of soft science fiction, women are given
the possibility to introduce their own themes and speculations.
Keywords
science fiction; woman; cognitive estrangement; Frankenstein
Hrčak ID:
94062
URI
Publication date:
17.2.2007.
Visits: 2.500 *