Queer Universes
Sexualities and Science Fiction
Distributed for Liverpool University Press
Disputes over the meaning and practice of sexuality have become increasingly central to cultural self-definition. It is hardly surprising, then, that science fiction, the province of new physical and psychological frontiers, has taken up the task of imagining a diverse range of queer and not-so-queer futures. Queer Universes is a landmark investigation into these contemporary and historical representations of gender and sexualities—including Wendy Gay Pearson’s award-winning essay on reading science fiction queerly, as well as essays discussing “sextrapolation” in New Wave science fiction, “stray penetration” in William Gibson’s cyberpunk works, the queering of nature in ecofeminist sci-fi, and the radical challenges posed to conventional science fiction in the work of important writers such as Samuel R. Delaney, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Joanna Russ. In addition, this distinguished volume offers interviews with acclaimed science fiction writers and essays from scholars and science fiction giants alike.
“Timely, smart, and innovative, this vital collection ensures that our conception of science fiction is fuller and healthier.”—Science Fiction Studies
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
Nicole 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
Part III: Disordering Desires
‘Something Like a Fiction’: Speculative Intersections of Sexuality and Technology
Veronica Hollinger
‘And How Many Souls Do You Have?’: Technologies of Perverse Desire and Queer Sex in Science Fiction Erotica
Patricia Melzer
BDSMSF(QF): Sadomasochistic Reading of Québécois Women’s Science Fiction
Sylvie Bérard
Part VI: Embodying New Worlds
‘Happy That It’s Here’: An Interview with Nalo Hopkinson
Nancy Johnston
Queer Nature: Close Encounters with the Alien in Ecofeminist Science Fiction
Helen Merrick
Queering the Coming Race? A Utopian Historical Imperative
De Witt Douglas Kilgore
Works Cited
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