Ecofeminist Science Fiction

Douglas A. Vakoch is President of METI, dedicated to Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence and sustaining civilization on multigenerational timescales. As Director of Green Psychotherapy, PC, he helps alleviate environmental distress through ecotherapy. Dr. Vakoch is editor-in-chief of the book series Space and Society (Springer), as well as general editor of Ecocritical Theory and Practice (Lexington Books). He has explored ecofeminism in six of his other books, including Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction.

Preface Douglas A. Vakoch

Introduction Patrick D. Murphy

I. Female Bodies: Plants and Animals, Cyborgs and Robots

1. "Mothered by the Arid Sand": Hanns Heinz Ewers’ Alraune with an Ecofeminist Twist Melissa Etzler

2. The Runa and Female Otherness in Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow Lesley Kordecki

3. Reproduction, Utilitarianism, and Speciesism in Sleep Dealer and Westworld Imelda Martín Junquera

4. The Living Spaces of Robots: An Ecofeminist Reading of The Stepford Wives Katja Plemenitaš

II. Queer Ecologies

5. An Ecofeminist Reading of Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods Aslı Değirmenci Altın

6. Speculative Sex: Queering Aqueous Natures and Biotechnological Futures in Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl Sarah Bezan

7. Queering Doctor Who and Supernatural: An Ecofeminist Response to Bill Potts and Charlie Bradbury Meghna Mudaliar

III. War and Ecoterrorism

8. No Easy Answers: Karen Traviss’s The Wess’har Wars Series Patrick D. Murphy

9. "The Force Is Strong with This One": A Material Feminist Approach to Star Wars Başak Ağın

10. Chinese Science Fiction and Representations of Ecofeminists: Mad women or Women Warriors Peter I-min Huang

IV. Capitalism and Colonization

11. Hegemonic Masculinity and Tropes of Domination: An Ecofeminist Analysis of James Cameron’s 2009 Film Avatar Lydia Rose and Teresa M. Bartoli

12. Eco-Heroines and Saviors in Iraj Fazel Bakhsheshi’s Men and Supertowers and The Sun’s Sons Zahra Jannessari Ladani

13. Rethinking Resistance: An Ecofeminist Approach to Anti-Colonialism in Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God and Oreet Ashery and Larissa Sansour’s The Novel of Nonel and Vovel Benay Blend

14. The Road to Sinshan: Ecophilia in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Early Hainish Novels Deirdre Byrne