2026-09-22T05:46:28Zhttps://cora.ucc.ie/server/oai/request

oai:cora.ucc.ie:10468/189302026-05-29T02:01:57Zcom_10468_384com_10468_2com_10468_61com_10468_1col_10468_385col_10468_172col_10468_8983

2036-06-30 Controlled Access Corcoran, Miranda O'Connor, Maureen Aherne, Elizabeth Anne University College Cork 2026-05-28T13:47:45Z 2026-05-28T13:47:45Z 2025-06-05 2025-06-05 Controlled Access This thesis examines queer representations of the family in feminist, Afrofuturist, and Indigenous futurist science fiction (sf), focusing on how authors kept to the margins of the genre—women, Black, and Indigenous authors—use sf to challenge heteronormative family ideology. Although science fiction scholars have been thinking queerly about the genre since the 1990s, there has yet to be a large-scale study of the family in science fiction, in part because the nuclear family—as a symbol of American national prosperity and the conservative beliefs and values of the white middle class—is considered a key facet of nation's moral fabric. Popular representations of the family in science fiction confine nuclear families to far-away spacecraft and remote planets to safeguard the idealised vision of the family from the threats of modern society. This study interrogates hegemonic family ideology and the dominance of white heteropatriarchy by examining how sf can instead be used to question rather than uphold the validity of the homogenous family unit and exposes the use of the family—both as an idea and a social structure—as a political tool to oppress and marginalise women, Black people, and Indigenous people in North America. Using an intersectional queer critical lens, my research shows how New Wave feminist, Indigenous futurist, and Afrofuturist sf texts unveil ideas about gender, sex, sexuality, race, and nation that are embedded in family ideology and wielded by state actors to subjugate oppressed classes. This thesis’ intersectional and, indeed, queer, study of the family in sf, therefore, undermines the nuclear family as both a symbol of stability and an organically occurring, homogenous phenomenon while exploring the varied and nuanced ways in which women, Black, and Indigenous authors transform the genre, resist white heteropatriarchy, and foster hope for a queer future. Not peer reviewed Accepted Version application/pdf Aherne, E. A. 2025. Queering the family as an act of resistance, transformation, and hope in Indigenous futurist, Afrofuturist, and New Wave feminist science fiction. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. 243 https://hdl.handle.net/10468/18930 en University College Cork University College Cork (College of Arts, Celtic Studies, and Social Sciences) © 2025, Elizabeth Anne Aherne. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Feminist science fiction Science fiction Indigenous futurism Afrofuturism Queering the family as an act of resistance, transformation, and hope in Indigenous futurist, Afrofuturist, and New Wave feminist science fiction Doctoral thesis Doctoral PhD - Doctor of Philosophyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess