Identity Politics and Artificial Intelligence in Becky Chambers’ A Closed and Common Orbit and Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice: How the concept of Artificial Intelligence helps us imagine identity and gender in a posthuman future

Abstract

Science-Fiction is a genre famed on one hand for imagining the possibilities of humanities scientific advances, and on the other hand a genre that is seen as generic male fantasy. Through looking closely at contemporary women writers, we can see a long tradition of using Science-Fiction as a way to express critique on modern norms. The authors Becky Chambers and Ann Leckie focus on how the concept of Artificial Intelligence in the genre is a perfect metaphor to talk about identity and gender. By imagining a possible postgender world, they actually succeed in showing the struggles of gender and identity in our modern world. Applying the filter of AI over the subjects of identity and personhood we create a deeper understanding, a more universal understanding fitting for the field of Identity Politics.