女性主義科幻小說中的母性: 論《她鄉》,《時間邊緣的女人》和《他,她,和它》

Motherhood in Feminist Science Fiction: Herland, Woman on the Edge of Time, and He, She, and It

吳佳盈(Jia-Ying Wu)

指導教授 ： 張惠娟

國立臺灣大學/文學院/外國語文學研究所/碩士(2008年)

https://doi.org/10.6342/NTU.2008.00258

摘要

摘要

女性主義科幻小說通過女性主義論述以及科技論述所產生的文本較之傳統科幻小說更專注於女性議題，本論文便是以三個女性主義科幻小說文本:《她鄉》、《時間邊緣的女人》、以及《他、她、和它》討論女性主義論述和科技論述同時關心的議題—「母性」。《她鄉》作為女性科幻小說的前驅，以「母性」為基本原則構建了一個只有女性的理想社會，但這女性互助互愛的社會一方面挑戰了父權社會對女性的控制與刻板印象，另一方面卻也是壓迫性的、缺乏個人意志的社會，在此文本中，優生學也被用於控制各種動植物以及人類的種類。《時間邊緣的女人》承繼了《她鄉》對理想社會的描寫，但這理想社會鼓勵個人發表自我意見並且勇於溝通以調和紛爭，而此理想社會起源於採用人工生育而棄絕生理性的繁衍行為。《他、她、和它》則採用了九零年代電腦叛客和人機複合體的元素，不僅挑戰了人類自我定義的界線，更試圖證明，所謂「母性」並非是一種單一的、生理性的本能，而是受到各種社會價值和科技應用的影響，在不同的社會架構之下會擁有不同的面貌，因而鼓勵女性依照個人的意願，突破父權社會的框架，建立真正自由平等的理想社會。

關鍵字

女性科幻小說 ； 母性 ； 她鄉 ； 時間邊緣的女人

並列摘要

Abstract

Feminist science fiction is the genre in which feminist discourse and technological discourse intersect. This thesis focuses on an issue in this intersection: motherhood, intending to analyze how motherhood is represented in different ages and influenced by social values as well as technological practice. I choose three works for my analysis: Herland, Woman on the Edge of Time, and He, She, and It. I consider Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland as a precursor of feminist science fiction and in which a utopian society constituted of women alone is depicted. This society, while supportive of mothers, presents a unitary conception of motherhood with their strict employment of eugenics. Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time depicts the time travel of a Chicano mother. With the antithesis of time frames, Piercy is able to criticize patriarchal ideologies of the contemporary society as well as imagine a better future, enabled by the adoption of artificial reproduction technologies, for mothers. He, She, and It, another work by Piercy, questions the identity of being human as well as conception of “natural motherhood.” With the metaphor of cyborg, Piercy not only challenges the demarcation of gender identities but also points out that motherhood, as a practice, differs according to personal choices as well as social values. Her conception of motherhood in this text, although failing to incorporate biological males in the practice of motherhood, defies the stereotypical ideal of mothers as nurturers and child-rearers in patriarchy.

並列關鍵字

Motherhood ； feminist science fiction ； reproduction technologies ； Herland ； Woman on the Edge of Time ； He, She, and It

參考文獻

I. Primary Sources

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. Intro. Ann J. Lane. New York: Pantheon, 1979.

---. The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Ace, 1969.

Russ, Joanna. The Female Man. Boston: Beacon, 1975.

Jeffrey D. Smith. San Francisco: Tachyon, 2004. 43-78.