Jewish Women Science Fiction Writers Create Future Females: Gender, Temporality-and Yentas

by Jack Dann (Afterword), Marleen S. Barr (Contribution by), Daniel J. Brin (Contribution by), David Brin (Contribution by), Jennifer Caplan (Contribution by)

Overview

Jewish Women Science Fiction Writers Create Future Females: Gender, Temporality—and Yentas, the fourth volume in Marleen S. Barr’s Future Females critical feminist science fiction anthology series, is the first essay collection devoted to Jewish women science fiction writers. The anthology forges new alliances across disciplinary boundaries—feminist theory, science fiction, and Jewish Studies—by forming a scholarly force, consisting of established critical voices and cutting-edge, fresh perspectives. Acknowledging the growing cultural popularity of science fiction, Barr’s goal is to showcase new vistas for exploring gender through Jewish women’s science fiction visions. It is time for Jewish women science fiction writers to receive the focused critical examination they deserve.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666928167
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/15/2024
Series:	Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Jack Dann is an internationally published author, editor, lecturer, anthologist and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland, Australia. He has written or edited over eighty books and his awards include the Nebula, World Fantasy, Aurealis, and Shirley Jackson awards. He received his PhD from the University of Queensland.

MARLEEN S BARR is known for her pioneering work in feminist science fiction and teaches in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. She has won the Science Fiction Research Association Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction criticism. Barr is the author of Alien to Feminity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory, Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond, Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction and Genre Fission: A New Discouse Practice for Cultural Studies. Barr has edited many anthologies and co-edited the special science fiction issue of PMLA.

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, technical consultant and world-known author. His books include The Uplift Saga, Kiln People, and Existence, and his novels have been New York Times bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula, and other awards. Brin lives near San Diego, California, with his wife and their three children.

Lisa Goldstein is the author of seven widely acclaimed novels, including The Dream Years, A Mask for the General, Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon, Tourists, Summer King, Winter Fool, and Dark Cities Underground, as well as numerous works of short fiction, recently collected in the anthology Travellers in Magic. Goldstein lives in Oakland, California.

Pamela Sargent is the author of many highly praised novels for young adults and adults, among them the historical novel Ruler of the Sky, the alternative history Climb the Wind, and the science fiction novels Venus of Dreams, Venus of Shadows, Child of Venus, The Shore of Women, Alien Child, and Earthseed, which was recently optioned by Paramount Pictures. She has won the Nebula Award and the Locus Award, and has been a finalist for the Hugo Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. She lives with writer George Zebrowski in upstate New York.

Steve Shaviro is Professor Emeritus of English at Wayne State University, USA, after forty years of university teaching. He has published numerous books about film and music videos, and about science fiction, including Digital Music Videos (2017), Post-Cinematic Affect (2010), and Cinematic Body (1993).

MARLEEN S BARR is known for her pioneering work in feminist science fiction and teaches in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. She has won the Science Fiction Research Association Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction criticism. Barr is the author of Alien to Feminity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory, Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond, Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction and Genre Fission: A New Discouse Practice for Cultural Studies. Barr has edited many anthologies and co-edited the special science fiction issue of PMLA.

Table of Contents

Preface: In Praise of Judith Merril, Pamela Sargent

Introduction: The Invisible Jewish Woman or Closed Legs Finkelstein and Princess Vespa are Fake Jews, Marleen S. Barr

Chapter 1: Alien Encounters (of the Jewish Kind), Elana Gomel

Chapter 2: Miriam Michelson’s The Superwoman and the Future of Feminist Recovery, Lori Harrison-Kahan

Chapter 3: Seeing Judith Merril’s Personal and Professional Maternal I in “That Only a Mother”: An Intuitive Close Encounter, Leigh Gold

Chapter 4: On (Not) Saving the World: Joanna Russ' Extra (Ordinary) People, Steven Shaviro

Chapter 5: Traumatic Timescapes: Holocaust Memory in Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic and Nava Semel’s And the Rat Laughed, Elyce Rae Helford

Chapter 6: Esther Friesner’s Funny, Serious, and Seriously Funny Speculative Fiction, Jennifer Caplan

Chapter 7: Gendered Memory/Jewish Biography: Reading Elana Gomel’s “Sea of Salt”, Danielle Gurevitch

Chapter 8: Imagining a New Ashkenazi Motherland: Alternate History in Simone Zelitch’s Judenstaat, Lance Strate

Chapter 9: Motherhood, Survival, and Post-Humanism in Keren Landsman’s “Alone, in the Dark,” “Burn Alexandra,” and The Heart of the Circle, Erga Heller

Chapter 10: Naomi Alderman’s Complaint: The Power Addresses Feminist Science Fiction’s New Human Female Superheroes and Celebrates Women’s Real Bodies, Marleen S. Barr

Chapter 11: Space Time Travel: The R/evolutionary Kabbalistics of Natasha Lyonne’s Russian Doll, Adeena Karasick

Chapter 12: Nursing on the Teat of Godzilla: David Brin and Daniel Brin Reminisce With Their Childhood Friend Lisa Goldstein, Lisa Goldstein, David Brin, and Daniel Brin

Afterword: FINALLY!, Jack Dann

About the Editor and Contributors

Editorial Reviews

Jewish Women Science Fiction Writers Create Future Females: Gender, Temporality—and Yentas is the fourth volume in Marleen S. Barr’s unfolding series devoted to ‘Future Females.’ She situates this term not only in her own groundbreaking writing career, but also in science fiction and feminism as these fields interconnect over time—becoming increasingly relevant to what is reshaping our world.

Ruth Salvaggio