Authors :
Ahsana Fathima A. S.
Volume/Issue :
Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 4 - April
Google Scholar :
https://tinyurl.com/yfyrb765
Scribd :
https://tinyurl.com/4tksabj5
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26apr2485
Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.
Abstract :
The openness of the genre Science Fiction enables it to address imaginative and crucial concerns of modern society.
Gender inequality, systemic oppression and environmental degradation are critiqued in the selected sci-fi works:
Frankenstein, Frankissstein and The Stone Gods respectively. This paper will draw upon science fiction as “the literature of
cognitive estrangement” a definition coined by Darko Suvin (1979) in analysing science fiction as a tool of critical theory.
Science Fiction therefore is “the literature of cognitive estrangement” (Suvin, 1979) which makes use of “estrangement” or
defamiliarization of the world as we know it to create a critical distance between the reader and their sociological context.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1818) critiques gender inequality by allowing a male-character to steal womanhood’s
biggest contribution - childbirth. Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (2019) critiques binary gender conventions by centring
a transgender character, allowing readers to critique modern gender expectations. The novel also critiques the power
relations of creating life and consciousness. Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods (2007) critiques womanhood’s
marginalization in corporate-and-colonial power structure induced dystopian world.
Frankenstein enables systemic oppression to be critiqued through the reader’s symbiosis with the Creature.
Frankissstein critiques systemic subjugation through its representation of artificial intelligence and transhumanism. The
Stone Gods critiques systemic subjugation in corporations and colonial government and offers spotlight to the consequences
of unchecked power. It also criticizes environmental negligence and interconnectedness to it by the mankind. Through the
setup of a dystopian society as a result for humankind’s abuse towards earth, the novel portrays the urgency of ethical
consideration in the anthropocentric world.
Keywords :
Science Fiction, Gender Inequality, Environmental Degradation, Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism.
References :
- Butler, J. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.Routledge,1990.
- Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan, 2nd ed, Vintage Books, 1995.
- Haraway, D. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Socialist Review,15(2), 65-107.
- Le Guin, U. K. The Left Hand of Darkness. Ace Books. 1969.
- Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus. Harmondsworth. Penguin. 1985. free Ebook at planetebook.com
- Suvin, D. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre.Yale University Press.1979.
- Winterson, Jeanette. Frankissstein: A Love Story. London: Vintage. 2019.
- The Stone Gods. London: Penguin. 2007.
The openness of the genre Science Fiction enables it to address imaginative and crucial concerns of modern society.
Gender inequality, systemic oppression and environmental degradation are critiqued in the selected sci-fi works:
Frankenstein, Frankissstein and The Stone Gods respectively. This paper will draw upon science fiction as “the literature of
cognitive estrangement” a definition coined by Darko Suvin (1979) in analysing science fiction as a tool of critical theory.
Science Fiction therefore is “the literature of cognitive estrangement” (Suvin, 1979) which makes use of “estrangement” or
defamiliarization of the world as we know it to create a critical distance between the reader and their sociological context.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1818) critiques gender inequality by allowing a male-character to steal womanhood’s
biggest contribution - childbirth. Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (2019) critiques binary gender conventions by centring
a transgender character, allowing readers to critique modern gender expectations. The novel also critiques the power
relations of creating life and consciousness. Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods (2007) critiques womanhood’s
marginalization in corporate-and-colonial power structure induced dystopian world.
Frankenstein enables systemic oppression to be critiqued through the reader’s symbiosis with the Creature.
Frankissstein critiques systemic subjugation through its representation of artificial intelligence and transhumanism. The
Stone Gods critiques systemic subjugation in corporations and colonial government and offers spotlight to the consequences
of unchecked power. It also criticizes environmental negligence and interconnectedness to it by the mankind. Through the
setup of a dystopian society as a result for humankind’s abuse towards earth, the novel portrays the urgency of ethical
consideration in the anthropocentric world.
Keywords :
Science Fiction, Gender Inequality, Environmental Degradation, Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism.
