Challenging Dualisms through Science Fiction: A Close Reading of the Colonized and Gendered Identity and Body in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice.

Abstract

In contemporary Western Europe and the United States the dualistic system of thought seems to become stronger. Polarities among identities are strengthened, thus, too, when it comes to gendered and national identity. The aim of the thesis Challenging Dualisms through Science Fiction is to analyse how a cyborg image in Science Fiction literature can contribute to challenging the dualistic system of thought. After explaining how dualistic thinking and identity are connected, the theories by feminist writers Judith Butler on performativity, Donna Haraway on the cyborg and postcolonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha on hybridity, Third Space and ambivalence will be explained. On basis of these texts, the author does a literary analysis of imagery, language and the protagonist in Ann Leckie’s novel Ancillary Justice. So, it will be argued that the cyborg image is at play on different levels throughout the novel. As such, the author argues that the reader of the novel can become aware of the so-called Third Space, in which dualistic constructions are challenged and where awareness for new possibilities is created.