2. • Science fiction is a very popular genre of literature, with a
basis in science, ideas about the future, and ideas about
technology.
• Science fiction scholars like Gorman Beauchamp argue
that science fiction is a study both of a fear of technology
and a fear of the future.
• Science fiction is widely accepted as being a “man‟s
genre,” as women are often portrayed in flat, two
dimensional ways.
• Science fiction is often associated with post-apocalyptic
stories, dystopian societies, and “Big Brother” style
governments, although it can also be as simple an
influence as including time travel, space travel, or travel
3. • Children‟s Literature is described as any text that was
written for an audience between the ages of 0 and
“Young Adult” (typically 17). It generally features a young
protagonist, and is usually a genred text.
• Children‟s Literature, especially Young Adult literature, is
about how children become a part of society.
• Children‟s Literature often criticizes the current society
that children are being raised in (unfit parents,
inadequate education systems, lack of resources, etc).
4. • Children‟s Lit tropes changes science fiction.
• Predominantly female audience
• Desire to change current society, instead of reinforce it.
• Creates happy endings
• Science fiction tropes change children‟s lit.
• Extremely flawed “heroes”
• Less dynamic female characters
• Obsession with the future, rather than the past
• Why does it matter?
• Most popular genre currently
• Changing the way children read and think about society
5. • Beauchamp, Gorman. “Imperfect Men in Perfect Societies: Human Nature in Utopia”. Philosopy and Literature 31.2 (2007): 280-293. Web.
Project MUSE. 19 Sep 2011.
• ---. “Technology in the Dystopian Novel”. MFS Modern Fiction Studies 32.1 (1986): 53-63. Web. Project MUSE. 1 Oct 2011.
• Bullen, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth Parsons. “Dystopian Visions of Global Capitalism: Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines and M.T Anderson's
Feed.” Children’s Literature in Education 38 (2007): 127-139. Web. Article First. 21 Sep 2011.
• Cirrone, Dorian. “Millennial Mothers: Reproduction, Race, and Ethnicity in Feminist Dystopian Fiction.” Femspec 3.1 (2001): 4-11. Web.
EBSCO. 20 Sep 2011.
• Crew, Hilary S. “Not So Brave a World: The Representation of Human Cloning in Science Fiction for Young Adults”. The Lion and the
Unicorn 28.2 (2004): 203-221. Web. Project MUSE. 28 Sep 2011.
• Donadey, Anne, and Françoise Lionnet. “Feminisms, Genders, Sexualities.” Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and
Literature. 3rd ed. Ed. David G. Nicholls. New York: MLA, 2007. Print.
• Guerra, Stephanie. “Colonizing Bodies: Corporate Power and Biotechnology in Young Adult Science Fiction.” Children’s Literature in
Education 40.4 (2009): 275-295. Web. SpringerLink. 22 Sep 2011.
• Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” Simians, Cyborgs
and Women: The Reinvention of Nature New York; Routledge (1991): 149-181. Print.
• Hintz, Carrie. “Monica Hughes, Lois Lowry, and Young Adult Dystopias”. The Lion and the Unicorn 26.2 (2002): 254-264. Web. Project
MUSE. 27 Sep 2011.
• Hubler, Angela E. “Faith and Hope in the Feminist Political Novel for Children: A Materialist Feminist Analysis.” The Lion and the Unicorn
34.1 (2010): 57-75. Web. MLA Bibliographies. 18 Sep 2011.
• Jameson, Fredric. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London: Verso (2005). Print.
• Latham, Don. “Discipline and Its Discontents: A Foucauldian Reading of The Giver”. Children’s Literature 32 (2004): 134-151. Web. Project
MUSE. 28 Sep 2011.
• Neuman, S. C. “„Just a Backlash‟: Margaret Atwood, Feminism, and The Handmaid’s Tail”. University of Toronto Quarterly 75.3 (2006):
857-868. Web. Project MUSE. 10 Oct 2011.
• Ostry, Elaine. “„Is He Still Human? Are You?‟: Young Adult Science Fiction in the Posthuman Age.” The Lion and the Unicorn 28.2 (2004):
222-246. Web. Project MUSE. 22 Sep 2011.
• Parsons, Linda T. “Ella Evolving: Cinderella Stories and the Construction of Gender-Appropriate Behavior.” Children’s Literature in
Education 35.2 (2004): 135-154. Web. SpringerLink. 14 Oct 2011.
• Sambell, Kay. “Carnivalizing the Future: A New Approach to Theorizing Childhood and Adulthood in Science Fiction for Young Readers.”
The Lion and the Unicorn 28.2 (2004): 247-267. Web. Project MUSE. 20 Sep 2011.
• Sawers, Naarah. “Capitalism‟s New Handmaiden: the Biotechnical World Navigated Through Children‟s Fiction.” Children‟s Literature in
Education 40.3 (2009): 169-179. Web. SpringerLink. 25 Sep 2011.
• Stewart, Susan Louise. “A Return to Normal: Lois Lowry‟s The Giver.” The Lion and the Unicorn 31.1 (2007): 21-35. Web. Project MUSE.
13 Oct 2011.
• Trites, Roberta Seelinger. Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2004. Print.
• --. Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children’s Novels. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1997. Print.
