Gender,Technology,and the Reinvention of Extraterrestrial Nature

Abstract

This cultural studies article examines some trends in the Euro-American reinvention of the sea and the cosmos in the period following the Second World War. It argues that since, for a number of reasons, both extraterrestrial regions were being discursively prepared for conquest and colonial invasion, technoscientific discoveries intertwined with, and at times, reinforced age-old imageries on gender and ethnicity associated with the two areas. Ancient images of Mother Sea and Father Sky re-emerged in a brand new setting.

The study draws on analyses of popular cultural discourses such as film and literature in order to outline the similarities and, above all, the gendered and ethnicized differences constructed between inner and outer space. Whilst the former engendered images of the wild, yet noble 'others,'the latter connected with highly advanced supercivilizations. ¹

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barnes, Robert. (1994) The Blue Dolphin, H.J. Kramer Inc, Tiburon, CA.

Bryld, Mette. (1996) 'Dialogues With Dolphins and Other Extraterrestrials: Displacements in Gendered Space,' in Lykke, N. and Braidotti, R. (eds), Between Monsters, Goddesses and Cyborgs: Feminist Confrontations with Science, Medicine and Cyberspace, ZED Books, London, pp. 47-71.

Bryld, M. and Lykke, N. (2000) Cosmodolphins: Feminist Cultural Studies of Technology , Animals and the Sacred, ZED Books, London.

Cadigan, Pat. (1991) Synners, HarpcrCollins Publishers , London.

Cameron, A. (ed). (1963) Interstellar Communication, Institute for Space Studies NASA, New York and Amsterdam.

Carson, Rachel. (1961) The Sea Around Us, Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.

Clarke, Arthur C. (1960) The Challenge of the Sea, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, San Francisco.

Cousteau, Jacques Y and Dumas, F. (1953) The Silent World, Hamish Hamilton , London.

Davis, Susan G. (1997) Spectacular Nature: Corporate Culture and the Sea World Experience, University of California Press, Berkeley, London.

10.

Engel, L. and The Editors of LIFE (1961) The Sea, Time Incorporated, New York.

11.

Fairchild, Hoxie Neale. (1961) The Noble Savage: A Study in Romantic Naturalism , Russell & Russell, New York .

12.

Griffin, Donald R. (1974) Listening in the Dark: The Acoustic Orientation in Bats and Men, Dover Publications, Inc., New York (1st edition 1958).

13.

Gunn, James E. (1974) The Listeners, A Signet Book , New York.

14.

Holmes, D.C. (1967) The Search for Life on Other Worlds, Bantam Books, Toronto, New York , London.

15.

Kellogg, Winthrop N. (1961) Porpoises and Sonar, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.

16.

Kraus, J. (1995) Big Ear Two: Listening for Other-Worlds, Cygnus-Quasar Books, Ohio.

17.

Lilly, John C. (1962) Man and Dolphin, Victor Gollancz , London.

18.

Mowat, Farley. (1978) A Whale for the Killing, Seal Books, McClelland-Bantam, Toronto (2nd edition).

19.

Ong, Walter J. (1997) Orality & Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, Routledge, London, New York (1st edition 1982).

20.

Piccard, Jacques and Dietz, R.S. (1961) Seven Miles Down: The Story of the Bathyscaph Trieste , G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York .

21.

Sagan, Carl. (1997) Contact, Orbit, London (1st edition 1985).

22.

Sebeok, T.A. (1972) Perspectives in Zoosemiotics, Mouton, The Hague, Paris.

23.

Shklovsky, I.S. (1991) Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London.

24.

Springer, H. (ed). (1995) America and the Sea: A Literary History, The University of Georgia Press, Athens and London.

25.

Sullivan, Walter. (1966) We Are Not Alone: The Search for Intelligent Life on Other Worlds, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, London.

26.

Tavolga, W.N. and Steinberg, J.C. (1961) 'Marine Animal Sounds', Science 134, (1): 288.

27.

Tovmasyan, G.M. (ed). (1965) Vnezemnye Tsivilizatsii. Trudy Soveshschaniya Byurakan, 20-23 maia 1964 g ., Izd. Akademii Nauk Armyanskoj SSSR, Yerevan. (English translation: Extraterrestrial Civilizations , Israel Program for scientific Translations, IPST 1823, 1967.)