The Politics of Representation in Speculative Fiction

Summary:

An ongoing online debate/discussion in the speculative fiction community that's rather relevant to our discussions.

The Politics of Representation in Speculative Fiction

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If you're interested in the speculative genres of science fiction and fantasy, you may find these rather useful for trying to understand the problems in representing the Other in that particular literary area. Here's Elizabeth Bear, her LJ entry being the salvo that got the SF/F/H blogs going, and here's one of many responses from Bidisha at The Guardian.

Re: The Politics of Representation in Speculative Fiction

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I know you're all either busy with the last requirements for your classes or getting ready to have a good time this summer (enjoy!), but I just found out that this little thing I linked to a couple of months ago? It just turned into an absolute fiasco. That link gives you a background, but if you have more time and you want to follow the abuse that went on, click here.

Re: The Politics of Representation in Speculative Fiction

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Several more links:

• Jo Walton's "A wish for something different at the frontier" contains a discussion of aliens as Other and the potential of SF to rethink traditional narratives/representations/ideologies. The more fascinating thing really is how it begins with a discussion of gender and then suddenly goes into race and colonialism, demonstrating how all these are interrelated.

• Torie Atkinson's "Dealing with Dragons: gender and sexuality in manga" has a title that indicates its range of questioning. It's a report from the recently-concluded New York Comic Con(vention), and while Atkinson does not make as many assertions as Walton, she does invite readers to ask questions about these matters. Especially significant is the idea of the female audience. Commodity or not?

• Dayle McClintock's "Revenge of the Tiny Panels" is more acerbic, for good reason. Aside from talking about poor management of the Comic Con, he also reports on why hardly anyone talks about the representation of women even when they claim to be talking about the representation of women. My suspicion (and I may be wrong about this) is that this may be where it intersects with our previous readings on ideology: naturalized as common sense, representations proceed unquestioned all-too-easily.

• Despite being an entry from an "obviously" fantasy blog, "Polytechnique" isn't really genre-related. It does deal, however, with a film (representation!) that depicts one of the most mind-numbing things I have ever encountered. Twenty years ago, in Montréal, the material reality of gender differences hit home in a way that many people still have not forgotten.