Presentation Title
Science Fiction by Women in the Pulp and Digest Magazines
Abstract
This presentation will share the findings arising from recent archival work of Dr. Anna Bedford and Dr. Jane Donawerth as they recover and collect for a contemporary audience some of the exciting women authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction in their forthcoming anthology of science fiction by women in the pulps.
Their research will be presented in chronological sections, but they identify strong thematic coherence in each. In “1920s through 1940s: Nature vs. Science,” they argue women writers are influenced by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to contemplate the dystopian consequences of individual, male scientists wielding the unnatural power of science and technology. In “1950-1957: Women Save the World,” women writers juxtapose the expected gender roles of women in their time period with the actions of women who save the world from alien take-over, discover a biological route to immortality, and make first contact with aliens. Finally, in “1957-1960: Reinventing Human-Alien Relationships,” they present women writers who explore the relationship between humans and “The Other” through stories of sexual experimentation, and interspecies relationships as political critique.
Overall, these stories critique masculine science, reimagine or revalue gender, and make a contribution to feminist discourses about war, sexuality, social hierarchy, and the treatment of human and non-human “Others.” The stories also reflect the variety of women’s SF and a sense of the history of women’s writing for the pulp and digest magazines, helping to dispel the misapprehension that women SF writers of the 1960s, Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ, were the first to enter the field. Bedford and Donawerth also queried contemporary women SF writers, and discovered many were zealous readers of earlier women writers in the pulp era, whose influence may be greater than previously thought.
Science Fiction by Women in the Pulp and Digest Magazines
This presentation will share the findings arising from recent archival work of Dr. Anna Bedford and Dr. Jane Donawerth as they recover and collect for a contemporary audience some of the exciting women authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction in their forthcoming anthology of science fiction by women in the pulps.
Their research will be presented in chronological sections, but they identify strong thematic coherence in each. In “1920s through 1940s: Nature vs. Science,” they argue women writers are influenced by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to contemplate the dystopian consequences of individual, male scientists wielding the unnatural power of science and technology. In “1950-1957: Women Save the World,” women writers juxtapose the expected gender roles of women in their time period with the actions of women who save the world from alien take-over, discover a biological route to immortality, and make first contact with aliens. Finally, in “1957-1960: Reinventing Human-Alien Relationships,” they present women writers who explore the relationship between humans and “The Other” through stories of sexual experimentation, and interspecies relationships as political critique.
Overall, these stories critique masculine science, reimagine or revalue gender, and make a contribution to feminist discourses about war, sexuality, social hierarchy, and the treatment of human and non-human “Others.” The stories also reflect the variety of women’s SF and a sense of the history of women’s writing for the pulp and digest magazines, helping to dispel the misapprehension that women SF writers of the 1960s, Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ, were the first to enter the field. Bedford and Donawerth also queried contemporary women SF writers, and discovered many were zealous readers of earlier women writers in the pulp era, whose influence may be greater than previously thought.
