Description
Book SynopsisContestations over the meaning and practice of sexuality have become increasingly central to cultural self-definition and critical debates over issues of identity, citizenship and the definition of humanity itself. In an era when a religious authority can declare lesbians antihuman while some nations legalise same-sex marriage and are becoming increasingly tolerant of a variety of non-normative sexualities, it is hardly surprising that science fiction, in turn, takes up the task of imagining a diverse range of queer and not-so-queer futures. The essays in Queer Universes investigate both contemporary and historical practices of representing sexualities and genders in science fiction literature. Queer Universes opens with Wendy Pearson’s award-winning essay on reading sf queerly and goes on to include discussions about ‘sextrapolation’ in New Wave science fiction, ‘stray penetration’ in William Gibson’s cyberpunk fiction, the queering of nature in ecofeminist science fiction, and the radical challenges posed to conventional science fiction in the work of important writers such as Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Joanna Russ. In addition, Queer Universes offers an interview with Nalo Hopkinson and a conversation about queer lives and queer fictions by authors Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge.
Trade ReviewReview of hardback: Timely, smart, and innovative, this vital collection ensures that our conception of sf is fuller and healthier. * Science Fiction Studies, vol.36 *
Table of Contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction: Queer Universes - Wendy Gay Pearson, Veronica Hollinger, and Joan Gordon
- Part I: Queering the Scene
- Alien Cryptographies: The View from Queer - Wendy Gay Pearson
- War Machine, Time Machine - Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge
- Part II: Un/Doing History
- Sextrapolation in New Wave Science Fiction - Rob Latham
- Towards a Queer Genealogy of SF - Wendy Gay Pearson
- Sexuality and the Statistical Imaginary in Samuel R. Delany’s Trouble on Triton - Guy Davidson
- Stray Penetration and Heteronormative Systems Crash: Queering Gibson - Graham J. Murphy
