Feminist Science Fiction: The Alternative Worlds of Piercy, Elgin and Atwood

Authors

  • Sema Kormalı Author

Keywords:

feminist science fiction, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, patriarchal society, genre fiction

Abstract

This article examines feminist science fiction as a genre that critiques patriarchal structures and imagines alternative social orders. It argues that since the late 1960s, feminist science fiction has combined with utopian and dystopian traditions to explore gender and power through speculative narratives. Tracing its roots to works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, the study highlights the genre’s historical continuity. It also critiques the subsumption of feminism under postmodernism and emphasizes the need to preserve feminist autonomy.

 

(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)

 

References

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Booker, M. Keith. The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1994.

Cranny-Francis, Anne. Feminist Fiction: Feminist Uses of Generic Fiction. New York: St. Martin, 1990.

De Lauretis, Teresa. Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film and Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.

Elgin, Suzette Haden. Native Tongue. New York: Daw, 1984.

Hengen, Shannon. Margaret Atwood's Power: Mirrors, Reflections and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry. Toronto: Second Story Press, 1993.

Lafanu, Sarah. Feminism and Science Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Piercy, Marge. Woman on the Edge of Time. New York: Fawcett, 1976.

Rao, Eleonora. Strategies for Identity: The Fiction of Margaret Atwood. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.

Walker, Nancy A. Feminist Alternatives: Irony and Fantasy in the Contemporary Novel by Women. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990.

Wilson, Sharon Rose. Margaret Atwood's Fairy-Tale Sexual Politics. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.

Wolmark, Jenny. Aliens and Others: Science Fiction, Feminism and Postmodernism. New York: Harvester, 1994.

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Published

1996-10-01

How to Cite

Feminist Science Fiction: The Alternative Worlds of Piercy, Elgin and Atwood. (1996). Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 4, 69-77. https://www.jast.org.tr/index.php/main/article/view/136