Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought

Notes

notes Introduction: Science Fiction’s Alien Constructions 1. My use of ‘‘feminist’’ not only spans articulations of the ‘‘Second Wave,’’ as its historical use in United States discourse suggests, but refers to concepts embraced in Ann Brooks’s definition of ‘‘postfeminism’’—a ‘‘conceptual frame of reference encompassing the intersection of feminism with a number of other anti-foundationalist movements including postmodernism , post-structuralism and postcolonialism ’’ (Brooks 1)—as well as transgenderism. The term ‘‘feminist ’’ thus describes a diverse set of thoughts that stand in relation to other progressive theoretical and political movements and are concerned with the manifestation and perpetuation of power structures based on various social, political, cultural, and economic factors, including those structured by gender. 2. The following titles offer discussions of various aspects of these genre-specific issues: Marc Angenot, ‘‘The Absent Paradigm’’; Marleen Barr, Lost in Space; Scott Bukatman, Terminal Identity and Blade Runner; Samuel R. Delany, ‘‘Some Reflections on sf Criticism’’ and ‘‘About Five Thousand One Hundred and Seventy-Five Words’’; Theresa de Lauretis, ‘‘Signs of Wo/ander’’; Vivian Sobchack, ‘‘Cities on the Edge of Time: The Urban Science Fiction Film’’ and Screening Space; Claudia Springer, Electronic Eros; and Darko Suvin, Metamorphosis of Science Fiction, ‘‘On the Poetics of Science Fiction ,’’ and ‘‘The River-Side Trees, or sf and Utopia: Degrees of Kinship.’’ 3. A recent example of how science fiction provides a cultural point of reference is the antiwar movement ’s distribution of flyers during the week when The Matrix Reloaded was released in 2003. The flyers drew an analogy between The Matrix and the Bush administration’s representation of the political situation in Iraq. The authors of the flyers relied on the reader’s knowledge about the film’s concept of a manipulated version of reality. The flyer can be reviewed on the website of the antiwar organization Not in Our Name: [http://www.notinourname.net/war/ redpill.html]. 4. As Camille Bacon-Smith explains in Science Fiction Culture, ‘‘it’s the science fiction community that creates and popularizes the language with which we name the future’’ (1). One example of science fiction’s influence on general culture is Gibson’s term ‘‘cyberspace,’’ which remains a popular way of referring to the Internet despite the United States government’s efforts to implement the term ‘‘Information Superhighway.’’ 5. Suvin borrows the concept of estrangement (Verfremdungseffekt) from German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who introduced it to the theater in the first half of the twentieth century. Suvin quotes Brecht as follows: ‘‘A representation which estranges is one which 266 NOTES TO PAGES 4 –9 allows us to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar’’ (‘‘Poetics’’ 374). 6. In his influential study Postmodernism , or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic Jameson discusses the implications of cultural and economic relations within the historical period of postmodernism for political subjectivity. In Aliens and Others, Jenny Wolmark gives a comprehensive analysis of science fiction’s role in Jameson’s theories of postmodern culture (6–16). 7. I use the term feminist science fiction as inclusive of both feminist science fiction narratives and feminist critical readings of science fiction texts. Feminist fiction and critical texts together form the feminist debate around science fiction and influence each other. 8. I use the term postmodern science fiction within a literary/cultural studies context to designate the disruption and boundary crossing of genre markers and the break with stylistic conventions and narrative structures that emerged in the 1960s. This literary development took place within the context of a cultural and media re- and devaluation of the Western world and a consequential crisis of Western subjectivity. 9. Here I discuss mainly aspects of the debate on the relationship of science fiction literature to feminist thought, since much of feminist science fiction criticism relates to literature more than film. Part II discusses the particularities of science fiction film as a medium in relation to feminist thought. 10. However, the increased concern with race relations in contemporary science fiction is visible in the popularity of books such as Nalo Hopkinson ’s Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) and Midnight Robber (2000), which have narratives that are embedded in black Caribbean culture. This increased concern is also reflected in two critical publications on science fiction of the past: Into Darkness Peering: Race and Color in the Fantastic (1997), edited by Elisabeth Anne Leonard—a collection of critical essays on race and fantastic...