Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Cologne, Allemagne--Philosophische Fakultät der Universität zu Köln, 2005. / Notes bibliogr.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves leaves 122-134).

Zugl.: Osnabrück, Univ., Magisterarbeit, 2009

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-241). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

published_or_final_version / Physics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Ursula K. Le Guin is often called a feminist science fiction author. Drawing on such theorists as bell hooks and R. W. Connell, I analyze three novels by Le Guin from a social constructivist feminist perspective. I discuss The Dispossessed as it relates to gender and the family in utopian writing, The Lathe of Heaven with respect to gender and race, and Lavinia and gender within the context of the overall trajectory of Le Guin’s writing. I conclude that these novels depict gender in ways that often essentialize identity, whether the novels’ presentations of gender align with liberal or radical feminist ideas, and sometimes represent characters more conservatively than the label “feminist author” might imply. I propose that Le Guin’s status as a feminist writer requires more specific qualification that accounts for the variety of beliefs in existence in contemporary feminist discourse.

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On the basis of an ontological analogy between the worlds of myth and dystopia, the present thesis argues the latter's inherently "metaphysical" character. As such, dystopia is regarded as categorically different from Science Fiction which, however grim in its surface presentation, always remains paradigmatically "non-metaphysical," i.e., neutral. This generic distinction is then applied to the analysis of the three most important SF works of Thomas M. Disch, one of the most interesting and accomplished contemporary SF writers. The generic, as well as socio-aesthetic discussion of Camp Concentration, 334, and On Wings of Song, traces Disch's development of a characteristically "Dischtopian" paradigm of social SF.

This thesis articulates theoretical views on science fiction in relation to our world as viewed from a postmodern perspective. Inherent herein, is the exploration of the ambivalent nature of the theme of the apocalyptic and its pervasive influence in contemporary science fiction texts, in particular the selected canonical works of Arthur C. Clarke and contemporary film. The pertinent idea inherent in these texts is its concerns regarding the future of humanity. The social anxieties of our postmodern age are foregrounded thereby bridging the intersection of apocalyptic narrative with the concept of the postmodern. Of particular significance is the presentation of social degeneration, the collapse of civilized society through advanced technologies as well as the ending and transcendence of human time. This study sheds important light on the need and search for meaning in a world plunged by chaos and incoherence. This is imbued in the way science fiction texts mirror and develop such concerns in our postmodern period. In an attempt to construct meaning it thereby renders an exploratory examination of our postmodern world in relation to its dreams, visions and anxieties. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

This study analyses how Stargate SG-1 perpetuates dominant representations of whiteness, and how whiteness is used as a marker of racial identity in American popular culture. The popular science fiction television show Stargate SG-1 continually uses the nonwhite alien to juxtapose the seeming superiority of the white human, with white Americans acting as trusted gatekeepers for the entire planet. Whiteness becomes almost invisible and normative as the alien “other” requires assistance or containment enacted through SG-1’s adventures “off-world”. I also examine the representation of superior white aliens as an extension of these dominant white discourses. It is through the study of the constructed nature of “race” that whiteness is made visible. As represented in Stargate SG-1 whiteness discourses contribute to and reflect “common sense” constructions of race within U.S. society. This examination of Stargate SG-1 illuminates how negotiations of whiteness are constructed within United States dominant cultural discourses as a means to exclude the “other”.