ID - 131869935 TI - Women’s Agency in the Dune Universe : Tracing Women’s Liberation through Science Fiction PY - 2021 SN - 9783030892050 9783030892067 9783030892074 9783030892043 3030892050 PB - Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, DB - UniCat KW - Philosophy KW - Sociology of culture KW - Sociology of the family. Sociology of sexuality KW - Fiction KW - American literature KW - Literature KW - populaire cultuur KW - filosofie KW - literatuur KW - gender KW - fantasie (verbeelding) KW - America KW - Fiction. KW - Feminism and literature. KW - Popular Culture. KW - Women KW - Sex. KW - Fiction Literature. KW - Feminist Literary Theory. KW - North American Literature. KW - Women's History / History of Gender. KW - Gender Studies. KW - Philosophy. KW - Literatures. KW - History. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:131869935 AB - This book undertakes the first large-scale analysis of women’s agency in Frank Herbert’s six-book science fiction Dune series. Kara Kennedy explores how female characters in the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood—from Jessica to Darwi Odrade—secure 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 women’s liberation movement. In this context, it addresses issues regarding sexual difference and solidarity, as well as women’s 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. Kara Kennedy is a researcher, writer, and educator in the areas of science fiction, digital literacy, and writing. She is an avid scholar of Dune who has lectured and published on various topics including world-building. She posts literary analyses of Dune for a mainstream audience on her blog DuneScholar.com. ER -