The book explores and introduces the world of Science Fiction (SF) by women writers, particularly Mary Shelley, Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler, in the light of the subtle relationship of literature and science, science and SF, male and female traditions of SF, and its eastern and western trends. It examines the ‘thought experiment’ and more open kind of humane thinking fictionalized by SF women writers, and explains how the women writers exploited science and scientology for literary purpose and fictionalized the human conditions confronted by the change brought about by science alongwith other ramifications and their divesting effects on human psyche. Traditionally viewed from women’s point of view, one understands that in spite of the rich contribution of women writers, this kind of SF genre still suffers from the malady of male-oriented subsumption. It shows that women writers have not only subverted the SF form and its conventions for their own ends, but they have also contributed a specifically female voice to a seemingly male genre.
The study points out that SF reflected in male tradition explores and exploits science as a mode of power, politics, domination, destruction and violence. Women, on the contrary, perceive scientific truth as the means of reconstructing human society in positive terms regarding constructive change, growth and all-round sound development. The space of dominance and violence of men SF is replaced by women SF writers with space for harmony, co-ordination, and humaneness. The central argument of the book is that the world of SF presented by women writers is a world of millennial vision based on harmonious interdependence and interrelationships. Science and scientific discoveries, therefore, should be designed not only for national development but also for the progress of the minority groups, women, subalterns, the oppressed and the downtrodden, in particular. By and large, the study finds out how the genre of SF practiced by the women writers, in a pragmatic way, has forged a path for safeguarding the existential interests of humanity in future.
Navle Balaji Anandrao, presently Asst. Professor in the Dept. of English Language & Literature, MSP Mandal’s Deogiri College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, is an emerging and passionate scholar in the field of SF. Having qualified both the State Eligibility Test (SET) and NET, he began his career in academic field and worked as a contributory teacher in Shri Shivaji College, Parbhani; M.G.M’s College of Computer Science and Information Technology, Parbhani; and in the School of Languages & Literature, S.R.T.M.U., Nanded. He has also worked for some period in Government’s Rajaram College, Kolhapur, as a Maharashtra PSC recommended and sponsored full-time Sr. Lecturer in English. He has been recognized as a PGT and Research Guide in the subject of English by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad.
Navle is a life-member of Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies. With the award of a Teacher Fellowship under FDP of UGC, he has completed his doctoral program on science fiction under the guidance of a world-class critic, Dr. Harihar Kulkarni, (a Fulbright Fellow, 1991-93, USA), and shared insights with SF writers and critics. He also holds a membership of prestigious literary organizations, both in India and abroad.
Balaji Navle has presented papers in national and international seminars and conferences, and edited a book, Indian English Literature in the 20th Century. Some of his forthcoming books are: Literary World and World of Literature; Ecoliterature: Exploration from the West and the East; A Student’s Handbook of Literature; and Criticism and Theory.
Mob. No. 980447457
Email: drbanavle@gmail.com
