Date of Award

6-2013

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English

First Advisor

Katherine Lynes

Second Advisor

Anastasia Pease

Language

English

Keywords

Cyberpunk, gender, feminist, heteronormative

Abstract

As a literary genre, Cyberpunk permits the existence of characters, plots, settings, and styles that challenge heteronormative perceptions of gender. The representations of women in Neuromancer, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and A Scanner Darkly highlight a progression towards feminist ideals. Despite this progression, critics have classified these early manifestations of the Cyberpunk genre as non-feminist works that perpetuate misogynistic themes. These critics assert that the female characters in each work are Othered and heteronormative. The previous analyses of these works fail to consider the fictional context of the female characters. In this thesis, I closely analyze the major female characters of each work, paying careful attention to the dystopian settings in which they exist. I further contextualize these characters by closely examining the interactions they have with the female and male characters that exhibit non-feminist traits. By doing so, I reassess these examples of early Cyberpunk fiction from a feminist perspective. The reassessment my analyses provide encourages future scholars to admit and consider the feminist merits of these texts, and of the Cyberpunk genre overall.

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