“Hope as the Engine for Imagining Utopia”: A Dream of a World Beyond Gender Cover Image

“Hope as the Engine for Imagining Utopia”: A Dream of a World Beyond Gender
“Hope as the Engine for Imagining Utopia”: A Dream of a World Beyond Gender

Author(s): Magdalena Dziurzyńska
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Fiction, Theory of Literature, American Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: gender; androgyny; postgenderism; science fiction; Marge Piercy; utopia; dystopia; hope;

Summary/Abstract: By analyzing the depiction of androgyny in Marge Piercy’s science fiction novels in the context of gender performativity and constructionism, this article demonstrates that androgyny may be used as a tool for deconstructing gender roles. Arguably, Piercy proposes a new, non-essentialist vision of humankind through the creation of androgynous or agender human and cybernetic bodies. Moreover, the article substantiates how the images of utopian worlds, which present futuristic hope, are connected with the postgender idea of gender transcendence, while the dystopian ones seem to be strongly related to gender essentialism.

  • Issue Year: 16/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 89-103
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: English