Re-visioning feminist futures: literature as social theory

This thesis explores the relationships between science fiction, social theory and social transformation through an in-depth analysis of three feminist science fiction novels. It develops innovative reading practices that bring together narrative theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines, including Sociology, Cultural Studies and Literary Studies. With reference to feminist psychoanalytic theory, the thesis also develops an original theorisation of the 'utopian impulse' and the workings of passionate identification in the formation of interpretive communities, with particular reference to feminist, social theoretical, and science fiction (fan) communities. The three novels focused on — The Gate to Women's Country, Body of Glass and The Fifth Sacred Thing — were selected because they crystallise an extensive range of debates conducted in a period of productive crisis for feminist theory and praxis from the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s. The thesis conducts an in-depth analysis of the transformations in social relations, including intimate social relations, that the novels theorise are necessary for the re-visioning of feminist futures. These include issues surrounding Sex, Gender and Sexuality; Mothering and Fatherhood; the relationship between investments in Spirituality, Technology and Hope for the Future. These debates are all set in the larger context of the historical (and epistemological) rupture between Modern and Post-Modern thought caused by the traumatic events of the Holocaust. The thesis argues that the heteroglossic genre possibilities of science fiction enable the novel texts to embody diverse strands of contestatory feminist theorising. They can thus hold open debates that might be foreclosed in more academic genres of theory that prefer texts to embody a single coherent authorial voice. Throughout the thesis I argue that this is a particularly timely moment to examine such questions, when feminist theory in the academy is apparently dominated by post-structuralist theory, and other feminist theories, namely those clustered around radical feminism, have been and continue to be abjected. I argue that feminist hope for the future requires that no feminist theories should simply be rejected, but that they require conscientious re-readings. Feminists, I argue, must take account of their passionate longings for inclusion in feminist interpretive communities as well as the pain caused when feminist theories exclude their subjective experience and / or alternative theories. The reading practices that can be developed when reading feminist science fiction can facilitate such a process

Public knowledge-making and the media: genes, genetics, cloning and mass observation

Media analysis of public engagement with genetics and cloning is dominated by media genre- specific or issue-specific analysis. Such analyses tend to frame genetics as a new technology, and media resources as current and immediate. Broader public discourses tend towards marginalising public knowledge as against expert voices. This article takes a broader perspective to demonstrate that people engage with multiple media genres over an extensive time frame. It explores the findings of a Mass Observation directive looking at how people know about genes, genetics cloning. We detail the specificity of using this research instrument and map the rich and detailed media culture, which emerged. Thus, we provide insight into how media cultures resource public knowledge making over time. The research also indicates a pro-science and engaged public culture in relation to genetics the UK, in which the media are key

Instantiating imaginactivism: Le Guin's The Dispossessed as inspiration

This article introduces the concept of imaginactivism to investigate the ways in which interpretive and activist communities are formed, inspired and reinvigorated by fictional cultural production. Several instantiations of imaginactivism, including a film pitch, a collection of short stories, and a panel organized for the Tiptree Symposium are discussed

Re-visioning feminist futures : literature as social theory

This thesis explores the relationships between science fiction, social theory and social transformation through an in-depth analysis of three feminist science fiction novels. It develops innovative reading practices that bring together narrative theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines, including Sociology, Cultural Studies and Literary Studies. With reference to feminist psychoanalytic theory, the thesis also develops an original theorisation of the 'utopian impulse' and the workings of passionate identification in the formation of interpretive communities, with particular reference to feminist, social theoretical, and science fiction (fan) communities. The three novels focused on — The Gate to Women's Country, Body of Glass and The Fifth Sacred Thing — were selected because they crystallise an extensive range of debates conducted in a period of productive crisis for feminist theory and praxis from the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s. The thesis conducts an in-depth analysis of the transformations in social relations, including intimate social relations, that the novels theorise are necessary for the re-visioning of feminist futures. These include issues surrounding Sex, Gender and Sexuality; Mothering and Fatherhood; the relationship between investments in Spirituality, Technology and Hope for the Future. These debates are all set in the larger context of the historical (and epistemological) rupture between Modern and Post-Modern thought caused by the traumatic events of the Holocaust. The thesis argues that the heteroglossic genre possibilities of science fiction enable the novel texts to embody diverse strands of contestatory feminist theorising. They can thus hold open debates that might be foreclosed in more academic genres of theory that prefer texts to embody a single coherent authorial voice. Throughout the thesis I argue that this is a particularly timely moment to examine such questions, when feminist theory in the academy is apparently dominated by post-structuralist theory, and other feminist theories, namely those clustered around radical feminism, have been and continue to be abjected. I argue that feminist hope for the future requires that no feminist theories should simply be rejected, but that they require conscientious re-readings. Feminists, I argue, must take account of their passionate longings for inclusion in feminist interpretive communities as well as the pain caused when feminist theories exclude their subjective experience and / or alternative theories. The reading practices that can be developed when reading feminist science fiction can facilitate such a process.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEconomic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC) (R00429834447)GBUnited Kingdo

Reviewed work(s): Afro‐Future Females: Black Writers Chart Science Fiction’s Newest New‐Wave Trajectory. Edited by Marleen S. Barr. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2008. Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias. Edited by Judith A. Little. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2007. Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction. By Sherryl Vint. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women’s Science Fiction. By Lisa Yaszek. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2008. [Book Reviews]

The opportunity to review this assembly of recently published texts is testament to a growing readership for scholarly engagement with science fiction (SF) as well as to the rich resource that science fiction offers to both women’s studies and to feminists working within longer‐established academic disciplines.1 The collection edited by Marleen S. Barr is a somewhat idiosyncratic but nonetheless lively assemblage of fiction, critique, and personal essay that claims to “chart science fiction’s newest new‐wave trajectory” (ix), while the anthology edited by Judith A. Little collects over twenty pieces of short fiction and novel extracts to provide resources for thinking through philosophical issues in the context of gendered utopias and dystopias. Sherryl Vint’s Bodies of Tomorrow draws on feminist philosophy and literary scholarship in close readings of key SF texts published in the last twenty years to make a plea for an ethical posthumanism that takes full account of human embodiment, and Lisa Yaszek’s Galactic Suburbia is a deceptively clear reevaluation of the contribution made to both feminism and science fiction by women writing science fiction after the Second World War and before the women’s liberation movement

Imaginativismo: explorações do impulso utópico dos feminismos da ficção científica e do ativismo do/a leitor/a/escritor/a

Este artigo introduz o conceito de 'imaginativismo' para conceitualizar as formas pelas quais comunidades interpretativas e ativistas são formadas, inspiradas e/ou revigoradas pela produção cultural ficcional. Em seguida, sugere que o termo "feminismos de ficção científica" é mais fecundo do que "ficção científica feminista", devido a seu foco em um modo de produção do conhecimento que é ao mesmo tempo esperançoso, alegre e crítico, e não em gênero (para)literário. Chama a atenção para a relação genealógica entre as posições de sujeito do/a leitor/a e do/a escritor/a antes de discutir a inspiração oferecida a uma constelação de ativistas da justiça social e ambiental por meio da produção cultural e do ativismo de três mulheres que reconheço como feministas de ficção científica: Starhawk; Walidah Imarisha e adrienne maree brown. Dois estudos de caso do imaginativismo são discutidos brevemente; A adaptação proposta por Starhawk et al. do romance The Fifth Sacred Thing , de Starhawk, e a antologia de Imarisha e brown, publicada por meio de financiamento coletivo, intitulada Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. Ambas intervenções são contextualizadas dentro de uma rede de trabalho literário e ativista espacial e temporalmente estendida e, assim, atenção é dada para as qualidades iterativas e relacionais do imaginativismo. Concentro-me no extenso trabalho de organização, incluindo o uso do crowdfunding, no qual cada uma dessas mulheres se engaja para desenvolver e disseminar visões coletivas de um mundo justo, assim como as habilidades e estratégias necessárias para materializar essa visão. Elas inscrevem leitores/as e escritores/as em suas visões de futuros transformados, e fazem o trabalho de transformar futuros através da organização cotidiana e assente como líderes, participantes e aliadas no movimento social em múltiplas escalas. Sua combinação de atividades pragmáticas e práticas, para fazer com que as coisas se efetivem, com visões de justiça transformadora, bem como sua articulação persuasiva da relevância dessa combinação, sugere que os investimentos utópicos que muitos/as leitores/as sempre tiveram no potencial da ficção científica para mudar a mundo são bem fundamentados

Exploring digital fiction as a tool for teenage body image bibliotherapy

This article reflects on the findings of the interdisciplinary ‘TransForm’ project, which ran between 2012 and 2014 and aimed to explore how reading and writing digital fictions (DFs) might support young women in developing frameworks for more positive thinking regarding their body image. The project comprised the following stages: (1) a review and compilation of DFs thematising and/or problematising female corporeality; (2) a series of cooperative inquiries with 3 groups of young women (aged 16–19 years) over a period of 5 weeks, examining participants’ responses to a selection of the previously compiled DFs, as well as the challenges these young women face in relation to body image and (3) an interventionist summer school in which participants aged 16–19 explored body image issues via writing DFs. This article reports on the main observations and findings of each stage, and draws conclusions for future research needs in this area