scholarly journals Expanded Universes in Science Fiction: A Matter of Integration

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Arthur Maia Baby Gomes ◽  
Elaine Barros Indrusiak
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Joanna Russ ◽  
Marvel Cinematic Universe

Still lacking theoretical definitions, expanded universes are an artistic phenomenon often seen in science fiction literature as well as in narratives in other media. This text proposes a mechanism to explain how these universes come into being. For this, we analyze a series of cases such as Robert A. Heinlen’s Future History, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle, George R. R. Martin’s Thousand Worlds, Joanna Russ’ Whileaway, and transmedia examples such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Borrowing from Tamar Yacobi’s concept of mechanisms of integration – ways in which the reader makes sense of inconsistencies or oddities in a narrative – we argue that the explanation that two or more independent stories are set in a common universe is a hypothesis generated by the reader to integrate coincidences between these stories

scholarly journals Expanded Universes in Science Fiction: A Matter of Integration

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Arthur Maia Baby Gomes ◽  
Elaine Barros Indrusiak
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Joanna Russ ◽  
Marvel Cinematic Universe

Still lacking theoretical definitions, expanded universes are an artistic phenomenon often seen in science fiction literature as well as in narratives in other media. This text proposes a mechanism to explain how these universes come into being. For this, we analyze a series of cases such as Robert A. Heinlen’s Future History, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle, George R. R. Martin’s Thousand Worlds, Joanna Russ’ Whileaway, and transmedia examples such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Borrowing from Tamar Yacobi’s concept of mechanisms of integration – ways in which the reader makes sense of inconsistencies or oddities in a narrative – we argue that the explanation that two or more independent stories are set in a common universe is a hypothesis generated by the reader to integrate coincidences between these stories

Joanna Russ and the New Wave

Joanna Russ ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 20-38
Author(s):  
Gwyneth Jones
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Star Trek ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Joanna Russ ◽  
Modernist Novel ◽  
The 1960S

“Experiment and Experience” covers Joanna’s first years as a reviewer for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, under the editorship of Judith Merril, and her first post as a university teacher at Cornell, and discusses modernism in sf, Joanna’s role as interpreter of the British “New Worlds” writers and the American New Wave and her response to the protest movements and cultural revolutions of the 1960s (in the psychedelic “Modernist novel by a Star Trek fan”) And Chaos Died. Essays and stories (1968-1971) examined include the important “The Wearing Out of Genre Materials,” and autobiographical short fictions that foreshadow The Female Man and illuminate And Chaos Died.

Joanna Russ

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwyneth Jones
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Literary Scholarship ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Joanna Russ ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Second Wave Feminism ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Experimental Novel ◽  
The Cold War

Joanna Russ (1937-2011) was an outstanding writer, critic, and theorist of science fiction at a time when female writers were marginal to the genre, and very few women, perhaps only Judith Merril and Joanna herself, had significant influence on the field. In her university teaching and in her writing she championed the integration of new social models and higher literary standards into genre works. In her review columns for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction she dissected the masters of the New Wave with appreciation, wit, and incisive intelligence. Her experimental novel The Female Man (1975) is an essential seventies Feminist text, still relevant today; her groundbreaking academic articles are recognized as foundation studies in feminist and science fiction literary scholarship. Drawing on Jeanne Cortiel’s lesbian feminist appraisal of Russ, Demand My Writing (1999), Farah Mendelsohn’s essay collection On Joanna Russ (2009), and a wide range of contemporary sources, this book aims to give context to her career in the America of her times, from the Cold War domestic revival through the 1960s decade of protest and the Second Wave feminism of the 1970s and 1980s, into the twenty-first century, examining her novels, her remarkable short fiction, her critical and autobiographical works, her role in the science fiction community, and her contributions to feminist debate.

Science Fiction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Canavan
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Popular Narrative ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Marvel Cinematic Universe ◽  
Political Economic

Science fiction (SF) emerges as a distinct literary and cultural genre out of a familiar set of world-famous texts ranging from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) to Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek (1966–) to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008–) that have, in aggregate, generated a colossal, communal archive of alternate worlds and possible future histories. SF’s dialectical interplay between utopian optimism and apocalyptic pessimism can be felt across the genre’s now centuries-long history, only intensifying in the 20th century as the clash between humankind’s growing technological capabilities and its ability to use those powers safely or wisely has reached existential-threat propositions, not simply for human beings but for all life on the planet. In the early 21st century, as in earlier cultural moments, the writers and critics of SF use the genre’s articulation of different societies and different possible futures as the occasion to reflect on our own present, in ways that range from full-throated defense of the status quo to the ruthless denunciation of all institutions that currently exist in the name of some other, better world. SF’s global popularity has grown to the point where it now looms quite large over cultural production generally, becoming arguably the most popular narrative genre in existence, particularly in the sorts of SF action spectacles that have dominated the global box office of the first two decades of the 21st century. It has also become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the things we used to think of as SF and the advanced communication, transportation, and entertainment technologies that have become so ubiquitous and familiar that we now take them for granted, as well as the growing prevalence of political, economic, and ecological crises now erupting out of the pages of our science fictions, like our very worst dreams come to life.

Joanna Russ

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul March-Russell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Short Story ◽  
White Male ◽  
Bertolt Brecht ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Alternate History ◽  
Joanna Russ ◽  
The University

Joanna Russ was one of the most influential figures within postwar women’s science fiction. As a writer, she incorporated modernist techniques, such as collage, so as to defamiliarize generic science fiction scenarios, for example, the first contact narrative, time travel, and alternate history, and to question their ideological bases. As a critic, she was instrumental in propounding science fiction as a genre that estranges its readership but which, until the Women’s movement of the 1960s, had tended to assume that the reader was exclusively white, male, and heterosexual. Lastly, as a feminist, she united both her creative and critical practices in an attempt to deflect this male gaze, and to open up the possibilities of alternate forms of social and sexual identity. Russ was born in the Bronx, New York City, on February 22, 1937. Her parents were both schoolteachers, from whom she gained a love of reading. She studied English at Cornell University, where she was taught by Vladimir Nabokov. Russ then studied playwriting at Yale University, where she discovered the work of Bertolt Brecht. She published her first science fiction story, “Nor Custom Stale,” in 1959. After teaching at the University of Boulder, Russ returned to Cornell as a tutor in 1968. During the next twelve months, Russ would join the first-ever women’s group at Cornell, publish her first novella, Picnic on Paradise, leave her husband, come out as a lesbian, and begin work on her masterpiece, The Female Man (cited under Novels). During the early 1970s, Russ became, alongside her close friend and fellow author, Samuel R. Delany, one of the most important critical voices in science fiction. In 1977, she became an associate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, where, six years later, she published her most influential work of literary criticism, How to Suppress Women’s Writing (cited under Nonfiction). Russ won several awards including the Nebula Award in 1972 for “When It Changed,” the Hugo Award in 1983 for “Souls,” and the Pilgrim Award for science fiction criticism in 1988. Her literary output diminished after the early 1980s; Russ’s final short story, “Invasion,” was published in 1996. Plagued by chronic back problems, Russ retired from academia to concentrate upon her critical writings. On April 29, 2011, following a series of strokes, Russ died in Tucson, Arizona.

Joanna Russ, Trans-Temp Agent

Joanna Russ ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Gwyneth Jones
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Ashkenazi Jewish ◽  
Cornell University ◽  
Short Novel ◽  
Joanna Russ ◽  
Sense Of Wonder

“Joanna Russ: Trans-Temp Agent” describes Joanna’s New York childhood in a close-knit (secular) Ashkenazi Jewish community; the precocious, passionate “sense of wonder” that informed her love of science, and science fiction; and the disillusion with stifling 1950s gender-roles that led young women of her generation to feminism. After Cornell University and a difficult, male-dominated theater course at Yale, she struggled with depression, experimented in the gothic mode, and sold uncanny tales to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. An invitation to the Milford conference marked her entry to the literary sf community. The chapter discusses published fiction from 1959-1970, with emphasis on “The Forever House” (1959) and the life-changing “Alyx” series, including the short novel Picnic on Paradise.

Interviews

Joanna Russ ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Gwyneth Jones
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Class I ◽  
Student Government ◽  
University Of Washington ◽  
Fiction Writing ◽  
Joanna Russ ◽  
Writing Class ◽  
The University

Interview conducted by email in 2017–18 GWYNETH JONES: You met Joanna Russ when you were at the University of Washington, and she became your self-chosen mentor—for a while. Could you tell me how that came about? KATHRYN CRAMER: When I was in high school, my father got back in contact with Gene Wolfe, whom he had known as a child. Gene came to Seattle to attend Norwescon and suggested that we come out. That was my first sf convention. I’m not sure if it was at that Norwescon or one a few years later, but I saw Joanna Russ speak on panels and found out she was on the University of Washington faculty. She was an amazing, charismatic speaker, and I decided that I wanted to take courses with her and looked her up in the university catalog after the convention. I took several quarters of her science fiction writing class. I don’t remember if I had read any of her work before I started taking her class. I think I may have read a couple of her novels as preparation. But I had already decided to take her class based on listening to her talk at Norwescon. Many of her students were a bit scared of her and so her office hours were very open timewise. I would just go and talk to her for as much of the time as was available. If anyone else showed up, I would defer. A guy named Michael Gilbert, who later went to Clarion West with me, usually was there, too. My big regret is that she taught a science fiction criticism course and I didn’t take it. Michael took it; I was involved in student government and didn’t have the time. But I heard all about what they studied from Michael....

scholarly journals Superheroines and Sexism: Female Representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Folukemi Olufidipe ◽  
Yunex Echezabal
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Costume Design ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Mixed Methods Design ◽  
Feminist Film Theory ◽  
Feminist Film ◽  
Marvel Cinematic Universe ◽  
Feminist Movements

     The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time and since the premiere of Iron Man in 2008, it has risen to fame as a source of science-fiction entertainment. Sexism in the film industry often goes brushed aside but the widespread success of Marvel Studios calls attention to their treatment of gender roles. This paper explores the progression of six female superheroes in the MCU and what effect feminist movements have had on their roles as well as upcoming productions in the franchise. This paper used an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods design that studied movie scripts and screen time graphs. 14 MCU movies were analyzed through a feminist film theory lens and whenever a female character of interest was chosen, notes were taken on aspects including, but not limited to, dialogue, costume design, and character relationships. My findings showed that females in the MCU are heavily sexualized by directors, costume designers, and even their male co-stars. As powerful as some of these women were found to be, it was concluded that Marvel lacks in female inclusivity. Marvel’s upcoming productions, many of which are female-focused, still marginalize the roles of their superheroines which is a concern for the future of the film industry. Marvel is just one franchise but this study shows how their treatment of female characters uphold patriarchal structures and perpetuate harmful stereotypes that need to be corrected in the film industry as a whole. 

Post-9/11 Power and Responsibility in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Muller
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
World View ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Marvel Cinematic Universe ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
American Film Industry

Moving to the science fiction genre, but remaining within the field of allegory, Chapter Thirteen sees Christine Muller scrutinise one of the most economically successful and culturally impactful genre variations to emerge from the American film industry in the last two decades, the renaissance of the superhero film. While it is an emergence which has been criticised by many (see Alan Moore's criticism of it as a "cultural catastrophe" in Flood, 2014), its impact has been so profound that to dismiss it seems imprudent, and, as Richard Gray and Betty Kaklamanidou observed in their The 21st Century Superhero Essays on Gender, Genre and Globalization in Film (2011), in many ways the 2000s were the 'decade of the superhero' (Gray and Kaklamanidou 1). Indeed, one can deal a great deal about a culture by its heroic mythology. Just as the ancient Greeks had tales of Hercules and Achilles, late nineteenth century America turned to mythologised stories of Wyatt Earp and Davy Crockett, in the twentieth century and into twenty-first, western culture found its heroic ideals embodied in comic-book heroes like Superman, Batman and Spider-Man. In Muller's chapter, "Post-9/11 Power and Responsibility in the Marvel Cinematic Universe", she considers the relationship between the superhero film and the tumultuous post-9/11 era, exploring the ideological function of superhero narratives. Muller looks at how the Marvel Cinematic Universe often returned to trauma in a variety of forms in their films which frequently emerge not as bloated blockbusters empty of resonance, but texts which engage with the decade in deeply revealing ways (see DiPaolo and McSweeney). Far removed from the cartoonish fantasyscapes of Salkind era Superman (1977) or the increasingly extravagant excesses of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman years, the real world set Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning with Iron Man (2008), are deeply immersed in what we might call the ongoing 'War on Terror' narrative. While some writers have dismissed the genre as perpetuating hegemonic ideological systems (see Hassler-Forrest) Muller argues that they are able to, at times, offer more than the conservative world view they are primarily associated with. The defining events of the 'War on Terror' era thus become replayed in the MCU through the melodramatic spectacle of the superhero genre.

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