|
" Subversive Feminist Thrusts: "
Naomi R. Mercer
S. Stanford Friedman
| Document Type
|
:
|
Latin Dissertation
|
| Language of Document
|
:
|
English
|
| Record Number
|
:
|
1103812
|
| Doc. No
|
:
|
TLpq1428851608
|
| Main Entry
|
:
|
Naomi R. Mercer
|
|
|
:
|
S. Stanford Friedman
|
| Title & Author
|
:
|
Subversive Feminist Thrusts:\ Naomi R. MercerS. Stanford Friedman
|
| College
|
:
|
The University of Wisconsin - Madison
|
| Date
|
:
|
2013
|
| student score
|
:
|
2013
|
| Degree
|
:
|
Ph.D.
|
| Page No
|
:
|
409
|
| Abstract
|
:
|
Although science fiction does not normally deal with religion, feminist writers, especially in the utopian/dystopian sub-genre of science fiction, recognized the dangers of fundamentalism and its infusion into American politics in the 1980s and began to address those dangers through genre writing. In this project, I address how feminist authors critique religious fundamentalism, linked to the rise of the Religious Right in the United States, through Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Marley's The Terrorists of Irustan , Piercy's He, She and It, and Tepper's Raising the Stones . These texts interrogate fundamentalist manifestations of Abrahamic religions--Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. They form an arc, beginning with a totalitarian theocratic dystopia with a faint utopian impulse (Atwood), and progressing non-chronologically through a totalitarian theocratic dystopia with active resistance and a stronger utopian impulse (Marley), to ambiguously utopic religious communities surrounded by a dystopian world (Piercy), to a more fully-realized utopic religious community that actively defeats fundamentalist regimes that would destroy it (Tepper). Using feminist intersectional analysis and Schüssler Fiorenza's heuristic of kyriarchy, I argue that feminist dystopian writing transgresses not only genre but also the "master narratives" of Western culture through its examination of and warnings against religious fundamentalism and theocratic governance. I scrutinize why and how a number of feminist science fiction authors engage in this debate, especially in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century feminist dystopian and utopian writing. Feminist science fiction writers interrogate religious fundamentalism to expose its inherent misogyny and oppression, activities that are frequently played out on women's bodies. Furthermore, I argue that feminist utopian and dystopian writing which criticizes fundamentalist manifestations of Abrahamic religions challenges the legitimacy of the underpinnings of Western thought and culture in myriad ways.
|
| Subject
|
:
|
Atwood, Margaret
|
|
|
:
|
Dystopia
|
|
|
:
|
Feminism
|
|
|
:
|
Language, literature and linguistics
|
|
|
:
|
Piercy, Marge
|
|
|
:
|
Social sciences
|
| |