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36 - The Literature of “What If …?”

from Part VI - Genres of the Present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

E. L. McCallum
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Mikko Tuhkanen
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
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Summary

This chapter investigates the forms of work fantasy and sci-fi do on how one imagine gender and sexuality and to suggest the pleasures of such imaginings. Octavia E. Butler's Wild Seed is a part of her Patternist series, comprised of five novels telling a recognizably mainstream sci-fi/fantasy kind of story. In the queer worlds of science fiction and fantasy, one can find many reimaginings of gender and gender roles. Same-sex love, lust, and attachment can be found in an array of sci-fi/fantasy titles that do not spin gender in the particle accelerator and measure what happens to it under pressure. In these worlds, what is queer is the unremarked but highly visible presence, or sometimes the centrality, of gay romance. LGBTQ sci-fi/fantasy has made strides in reimagining gender roles and the episteme of gender itself, and in imagining worlds of diminished or absent heterosexism.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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