Volume 30, Issue 1, 1 May 2013, Pages 39-51
Accessing the other wind: Feminine time in Ursula le Guin's Earthsea series (Review)
Department of English Studies, University of South Africa, South Africa
Abstract
It is widely accepted
that feminist speculative fiction (SF) provides an imaginative space
for the exploration of ideas first proposed in feminist theory. This
article demonstrates that the changing attitude to feminine time
explored in feminist polemic from the second wave to the contemporary
feminist poststructuralist approach can be traced in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series, which was written over four decades. Le Guin's
approach shifts from a second wave repudiation of feminine time in The
Tombs of Atuan to a postmodern embracing of feminine time as becoming in
the later novels, Tehanu and The Other Wind. A close reading of these
texts shows that Le Guin's
images, and the action that flows throughout the series, contribute a
unique vision of becoming to the contemporary feminist investigation of
time. © 2013 The English Academy of Southern Africa.
Author keywords
becoming; Earthsea series; feminine time; feminist speculative fiction; patrilinear time; Taoism; Ursula K. Le Guin
ISSN: 10131752Source Type: Journal
Original language: English
DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2013.783388Document Type: Review
