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Description of  Women s Agency in the Dune Universe: Tracing Women s Liberation through Science Fiction

3030892042 pdf This book undertakes the first large-scale analysis of womens agency in Frank Herberts six-book science fiction Dune series. Kara Kennedy explores how female characters in the Bene Gesserit Sisterhoodfrom Jessica to Darwi Odradesecure control and influence through five avenues of embodied agency: mind-body synergy, reproduction and motherhood, voices, education and memory, and sexuality. She also discusses constraints on their agency, tensions between individual and collective action, and comparisons with other characters including the Mentats, Bene Tleilaxu, and Honored Matres. The book engages with second-wave feminist theories and historical issues to highlight how the series anticipated and paralleled developments in the womens liberation movement. In this context, it addresses issues regarding sexual difference and solidarity, as well as womens demand to have control over their bodies. Kennedy concludes that the series should be acknowledged as a significant contribution to the genre as part of both New Wave and feminist science fiction. Read more