What’s an Androgin Like you Doing in a Planet Like this? Otherness, Science-fiction and Gender in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand Of Darkness
Abstract
This paper discusses Le Guin's classic novel as an example of the creative use of popular fiction codes and motifs to deal with gender issues. The use of androginy in the text is read as a thematization of the bisexualist bias in dealing with gendered bodies in our culture.Through the experiences of the main character, the novel reworks the classic science-fiction motif of the "alien encounter" in order to tackle the importance of otherness in the cultural understanding of gender. Far from offering an escapist utopia of unified androginy, the text sets free the multiplicity of identity options that exist behind the naturalized bisexual model.Downloads
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