Article ID: CBB398603741

Old Woman and the Sea: Evolution and the Feminine Aquatic (2019)

unapi

A curious sympathy between second-wave feminism and evolutionary theory forged a powerful connection between women and the sea. Speculative nonfiction by Elaine Morgan rewrote humanity’s evolutionary past to be more fluid and more feminist in her Descent of Woman (1972). Later fiction—including Kurt Vonnegut’s Galápagos (1985) and biologist Joan Slonczewski’s A Door into Ocean (1986)—posited alternative futures in which long association with the ocean resulted in the evolution of new forms of biological and social order. The elusive boundary between science and fiction in these narratives highlights both the moral authority of nature and the subversive connotations of the aquatic.

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Article Amanda Rees; Iwan Rhys Morus (2019) Presenting Futures Past: Science Fiction and the History of Science. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 1-15). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB398603741/

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Authors & Contributors
Meeker, Natania
Ginger Strand
Szabari, Antónia
Musil, Robert K.
Idema, Tom
Wheeler, Wendy
Concepts
Science and literature
Science and gender
Science fiction
Evolution
Feminism
Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships
Time Periods
20th century, late
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
Early modern
Modern
Places
United States
France
Mexico
Institutions
General Electric
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