Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Oregon/Feminist Science Fictions (Fall 2015)

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According to author and linguist Suzette Haden Elgin, “SF is the only genre of literature in which it's possible for a writer to explore the question of what this world would be like if you could get rid of [X], where [X] is filled in with any of the multitude of real world facts that constrain and oppress women.” By and large barred from the physical sciences, science fiction has also provided a space for feminist writers to explore relationships with science, technology, and identity, unfettered by the discriminatory constraints of professions or institutions and outside the generic conventions of other types of fiction. This course looks at feminist science fiction as a form of political theory, as a strategy for thinking critically about the present and imagining “what this world would be like” under different circumstances. It does so by exploring the relationship between SF as a genre and the perspectives of feminist writers, as understood through research in UO’s Special Collections and University Archives.