Women Writers of Science Fiction

Catalog description

Science fiction has long been dominated by male writers and their impacts on the world, from Isaac Asimov to William Gibson. This course traces a different genealogy of science fiction, attending to the voices and interventions of women authors. We track the development and impact of women science fiction writers from the 17th-century New Science to today, through such writers as Margaret Cavendish, Mary Shelley, James Tiptree, Jr., Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Nnedi Okorafor, and Larissa Lai. In doing so, we investigate the impacts of gender, race, and sexuality on the traditional themes of science fiction, such as technological innovation, species differentiation, and artificial intelligence.