Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
ISBN: 0156031515
Year: 1928
Relevance: It is considered one of the most famous works by a woman directly dealing with gender. Covering the life of a man who lives for centuries and then wakes up a woman to then go on living for centuries more, is firmly in the speculative fiction genre.
Joanna Russ’ The Female Man
ISBN: 0807062995
Year: 1970, published in 1975
Significance: Written in a time when science fiction was almost entirely male driven, it is considered the start of feminist science fiction. It will be interesting to see how woman changing to men compare to Woolf’s man changing to a woman.
Octavia Butler’s Kindred
ISBN: 0807083054
Year: 1979
Significance: Often labeled as African American literature rather than science fiction, Butler herself considered it to be an example of dark fantasy as she doesn’t attempt to explain the science behind the time travel. It is considered Octavia Butler’s most famous novel.
Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus
ISBN: 0140077030
Year: 1984
Significance: A blend of many different categories of fiction, it most often falls under the category of magical realism that plays with the traditional fairy tale. This novel won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
Marge Piercy’s He, She, or It
ISBN: 0449220605
Year: 1991
Significance: This piece is often classified as science fiction or cyberpunk, but given it’s flash back to Jewish/German golem story line, it blends the genres of science fiction and fantasy. It also touches on various social constructs such as gender roles, what it means to be human, environmental issues, and etc.
Robin McKinley’s Deerskin
ISBN: 044100069
Year: 1993
Significance: A traditional fairy tale based on the French story Donkeyskin, the story focuses on female loss of power and the rediscovering of identity and restructuring of the power dynamic.
