- Title
- Beyond the princess, the priestess and the galactic kitchen sink: Reformulation of feminine roles in certain work of Lois McMaster Bujold
- Creator
- Herington, Caitlin
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Text; Thesis; PhD
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/175282
- Identifier
- vital:14949
- Abstract
- In this thesis I examine the Science Fiction and Fantasy works of Lois McMaster Bujold in the Vorkosigan Series and Chalion Series, in particular the way she reformulates women’s roles and identities in society through the characters presented in these novels. I use the term Speculative Fiction as an umbrella term that encompasses both Science Fiction and Fantasy as modes of speculation, in that they both rely on extrapolation and estrangement as narrative features. My main proposition is that Bujold is an important transitional figure in speculative fiction between second and third wave feminist thinking. Although her work mimics some distinctive features of speculative fiction that utilise patriarchal structures and traditional gender norms, it is not limited by them. As a result, Bujold conveys a more complex and insightful understanding of gender. The research method of this thesis is the close reading of a range of sample texts from Bujold’s Vorkosigan Series and Chalion Series which feature female protagonists. I seek to explore the discussion of gender relations and reformulation that occurs within them in the context of both speculative and feminist criticism. Bujold’s exploration of the identities and social roles of women in these fictional worlds is complex and challenging, using a range of approaches from simple reversal, to hybridity of gender, to more complex partial positions. This thesis argues that she takes an implicitly feminist approach, focussing on female experiences and examining the modes of social control and exercise of power within patriarchal social structures as they impact on women. Science Fiction and Fantasy often seem to reiterate traditional patriarchal hierarchies. Validating gender norms that conform to social expectations rather than challenging them. Bujold is presented in this thesis as utilising established norms and tropes such that her texts are easily identified as examples of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but in other ways her reformulations present radical challenges to cultural expectations of gender. This thesis reveals that social critique and reformulation of gender roles is possible and powerful in both Science Fiction and Fantasy by examining the work of a significant author whose work has lacked critical attention until recently. Although numerous studies have examined the way gender has been treated in Science Fiction and Fantasy, the unique contribution of this thesis is to examine an author previously under-studied and to consider the patterns of these reformulations as expressed in Bujold’s works.; Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Federation University Australia
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright Caitlin Herington
- Subject
- Lois McMaster Bujold; Feminism; Science fiction; Fanatsy; Rreformulation; Second wave; Third wave; Gender; Gender roles
- Full Text
- Thesis Supervisor
- Wight, Linda
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