redefining humanity in science fiction: the alien from an ecofeminist perspective

339 Pages·2013·1.67 MB·English

REDEFINING HUMANITY IN SCIENCE FICTION:
THE ALIEN FROM AN ECOFEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

By
Irene Sanz Alonso

Under the supervision of
Dr. Carmen Flys Junquera

Instituto Franklin – Universidad de Alcalá

2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

After all these five years, I have come to see the writing of this dissertation as some
sort of intergalactic journey and this book as a spaceship arriving at its final destination. As
any journey across the universe, my research started with fear and doubts, but it finally ended
in success thanks to all those people who supported me along the way. Continuing with the
intergalactic metaphor, I would like to thank the sponsors and patrons that made this
adventure possible by providing the spaceship and the fuel for my journey. This dissertation
would not have been possible without the grant I was awarded by the Autonomous Region of
Madrid in 2007, which enabled me to focus on my research for four years as a researcher at
the University of Alcalá. I also want to highlight the support of the Franklin Institute of the
University of Alcalá, whose resources were of great help, and whose grant Eleanor Roosevelt
made the binding of this dissertation possible.
I am also indebted to the whole team of “engineers” whose knowledge helped me with
the doubts that appeared throughout my journey. The arrival to my destination would not have
been so successful without the support from the members of the research group GIECO, who
are not only colleagues but good friends. Their recommendations have been essential to this
project and I can only say thank you to all of them. I would also like to thank Dr. Axel
Goodbody for his words of advice, both in academic and non-academic issues, during my stay
at the University of Bath. And last but not least, I want to recognize the efforts made by the
person who has guided me on this journey, Dr. Carmen Flys. Her support and critical advice
have shown me the way to follow even at those moments when I could not see the end of the
journey.
This last section of acknowledgements is devoted to all the people that have
accompanied me these years. Writing a dissertation is a solitary task, but I have always felt
my family with me. I have special words of gratitude for my mother and my grandmother
Almudena because of their unconditional support, and because they have always encouraged
me to follow my dreams. I also want to say thanks to all my friends because of their efforts to
understand what my dissertation is about. Finally, I thank Alberto for his company and
support in this lonely journey.
And after my thanks to my human companions, I also want to thank my non-human
friend Kira, whose silent presence was also of great help.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION 3

II. SCIENCE FICTION 11
2.1 HISTORY 18
2.2 EXTRAPOLATION 24
2.3 SF AND POSTMODERNISM 27
2.4 FEMINIST SCIENCE FICTION 31
2.5 ALIENS AND CYBORGS 41
2.6 SCIENCE FICTION AND NATURE 55

III. ECOFEMINISM 61
3.1 TYPES OF ECOFEMINISM 69
3.2 CRITIQUE OF ECOFEMINISM 75
3.3 INTERCONNECTIONS BETWEEN WOMEN AND NATURE 80
3.4 GAIA 88
3.5 OPPRESSIVE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS 91
3.6 ECOFEMINIST ETHIC 100

IV. THE AUTHORS AND THEIR WORK 105
4.1 BIOGRAPHY OF OCTAVIA BUTLER 105
4.2 OCTAVIA BUTLER’S SCIENCE FICTION 108
4.3 SUMMARY OF THE XENOGENESIS SERIES (LILITH’S BROOD) 112
4.4 APPROACHES TO LILITH’S BROOD 118
4.5 BIOGRAPHY OF JOAN SLONCZEWSKI 124
4.6 JOAN SLONCZEWSKI’S SCIENCE FICTION 126
4.7 SUMMARY OF A DOOR INTO OCEAN 130
4.8 APPROACHES TO A DOOR INTO OCEAN 132
V. ANALYSIS OF THE NOVELS 137
5.1 NARRATIVE VOICES 139
5.2 THE ENVIRONMENT 145
5.3 SCIENCE 160
5.4 GENDER 174
5.5 HUMAN VS ALIEN 192
5.6 ECOFEMINIST ANALYSIS 225

VI. CONCLUSIONS 277

VII. WORKS CITED 291

VIII. SUMMARY IN SPANISH / RESUMEN EN ESPAÑOL 309
Perhaps the most important task for human beings is not to search
the stars to converse with cosmic beings but to learn to communicate
with the other species that share this planet with us.
(Plumwood, Environmental Culture 189).
Redefining Humanity in Science Fiction

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I. Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

The beginning of this dissertation dates back to 2007 with the PhD course on
Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism and Environmental Justice. This course, taught by Professor
Carmen Flys, was a turning point in my life as a student since it opened the doors to a
research field that allowed me to explore many of my interests together: literature, science
fiction, gender and the environment. It was then when Dr. Flys and I commented on the
possibility of working on a dissertation about Science Fiction from an ecofeminist
perspective, an idea that became real with the realization of the research project “‘When they
killed even to save life, they died a little themselves.’An Ecofeminist Approach to Octavia
Butler’s Xenogenesis Series.” This work, which is the point of departure for this dissertation,
helped me realize the possibilities of such a popular genre as SF to question the values of our
society in terms of otherness, with special interest in the treatment of human and non-human
others and the environment.
One of the most decisive moments in the process of elaboration of this dissertation
was when the Autonomous Region of Madrid granted me a scholarship to carry out the
research for my PhD, which enabled me to work full-time on this project. This scholarship
was in itself an achievement since my proposal was focused on the literary analysis of
feminist Science Fiction works with special focus on issues of gender and the environment,
and ecofeminism was relatively unknown in literary criticism in Spain, and SF was still
regarded as a marginal genre of the literary canon. But the most visible achievement of all
these years of research and work is precisely this dissertation which highlights the power of
popular genres to work as vehicles of social criticism and of alternative and healthier
lifestyles.
When I started this dissertation, one of my goals was to show how literature can help
us create a better world by inviting readers to reflect on the world we live in, with special
attention to the environment and the relationship with the other. Although some critics believe
that realist fiction may seem the more appropriate vehicle to do so, I think—following Darko
Suvin and Patrick Murphy, among others—that the particularities of Science Fiction make of
the genre a useful tool to question our values and our society. Science Fiction has usually
been defined as an escapist genre because it portrays worlds different from our own. But
many Science Fiction critics prefer to consider the genre as extrapolative, which implies that
Science Fiction is about the world we live in as described from an estranged vantage point

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Redefining Humanity in Science Fiction

that enables the author to explore real problems from the perspective of the outsider. This
process of defamiliarization positions the reader as an objective observer of his/her own
world, making it easier to perceive and reflect on the conflicts of our society. Considering the
environment, some Science Fiction novels about environmental degradation and ecological
catastrophes have proved more fruitful in raising awareness about the possible future
consequences of our failed relationship with the Earth. In this sense, Science Fiction is not
only appropriate for speculating about the results of our actions nowadays, but it is also an
interesting vehicle for proposing solutions to the social and environmental conflicts we face
today.
The extrapolative character of Science Fiction is especially interesting from an
ecofeminist point of view because it serves the two main goals of ecofeminism: to question
oppressive attitudes and unhealthy social systems and to propose alternative lifestyles based
on an ethics of care and respectful practices towards the other, including nature. In this sense,
the estranged point of view that Science Fiction allows writers to adopt enables readers to
approach reality in a defamiliarized way. This way, readers are able to identify more easily
those values embedded in our social structures that sanction and perpetuate oppression. The
speculative nature of Science Fiction is also interesting for ecofeminists because it offers the
possibility of imagining alternative—and healthier—social systems from which we can learn
to improve our own reality.
Ecofeminists argue that humans have failed to recognize the seriousness of the
ecological crisis because we no longer see ourselves as part of nature; that is, we have “a
weakened sense of the reality of our embeddedness in nature” (Plumwood, Environmental
Culture 97). In this sense, Patrick Murphy comments that in order to “understand our
appropriate ecological niche” we need to recognize that “humans are not only things-in
themselves and things-for-us but also things-for-others, including the stable evolution of the
biosphere” (“Ground, Pivot, Motion” 230). Ecofeminist authors also criticize the patterns of
domination that have relegated women and nature—together with other human and non-
human others—to a powerless position in Western culture, which has provoked the
environmental crisis we face nowadays. But ecofeminists do not only criticize the unhealthy
social systems that sanction oppressive attitudes since they also promote alternative lifestyles
and an ethics of care that help humans understand their place in nature and their dependence
on it, as well as respect for the other in his/her/its uniqueness.
Regarding all this, the main purpose of this dissertation is to explore the ways in which
Science Fiction and ecofeminism can benefit the one from the other. The freedom that

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