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- On Joanna Russ
A multifaceted look at one of science fiction and feminism's most original voices
Joanna Russ, a feminist writer best known for The Female Man (1975), has produced a fierce, intense body of fiction and essays whose influence has been wide-ranging and complex. Her many publications include How to Suppress Women's Writing (1983), and she has won both of science fiction's most prestigious awards, the Nebula and the Hugo. The essays in this volume examine every aspect of Russ's body of work and provide a critical assessment that is long overdue. The first part of the book, "Criticism and Community," gives readers a context for and overview of Russ's works, and includes discussions of Russ's role in the creation of a feminist science fiction tradition. The second part, "Fiction," offers detailed analyses of some of Russ's writing.
Contributors include: Andrew M. Butler, Brian Charles Clark, Samuel R. Delany, Edward James , Sandra Lindow, Keridwen Luis, Paul March-Russell, Helen Merrick, Dianne Newell, Graham Sleight, Jenéa Tallentire, Jason Vest, Sherryl Vint, Pat Wheeler, Tess Williams, Gary K. Wolfe, and Lisa Yaszek.
SECTION ONE: CRIRICISM AND COMMUNITY
Alyx Among the Genres, Gary K. Wolfe
Russ of Writing Science Fiction, and Reviewing It, Edward James
A History of One's Own: Joanna Russ and the Creation of a Feminist Science Fiction Tradition, Lisa Yaszek
The Female 'Atlas' of Science Fiction? Russ, feminist and the SF community, Helen Merrick
Learning the 'Prophet Business': The Merrill-Russ Intersection, Dianne Newell and Jenéa Tallentire
SECTION TWO: FICTION
Joanna Russ's The Two of Them in an Age of Third Wave Feminism, Sherryl Vint
Assassin or Avenger-Vandal or Vigilante? Anger, Alienation and Escape Strategies in Joanna Russ's The Two of Them, Pat Wheeler
Les human beans? Alienation, Humanity and Community in Joabba Russ's On Strike Against God, Keridwen Luis
Kittens Who Run With Wolves: Healthy Girl Development in Joanna Russ's Kittatiny, Sandra Lindow
Medusa Laughs: Birds, Thieves, and Other Unruly Women, Andrew M. Butler
Violent Women, Womanly Violence: Joanna Russ's Femmes Fatales, Jason Vest
The 'Opposed Aesthetic' in Mina Loy and Joanna Russ, Paul March-Russell
Joanna Russ and D.W. Griffith, Samuel R. Delany
Extraordinary People, Graham Sleight
Castaway: Carnival and Sociobiological Satire in We Who Are About To…, Tess Williams
The Narrative Topology of Resistance in the Fiction of Joanna Russ, Brian Charles Clark
FARAH MENDELSOHN teaches at Middlesex University, London. She is the author of Rhetorics of Fantasy (2008) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (2006), winner of a Hugo Award.
"The essays ... in On Joanna Russ ... reflect the sophisticated work being done on lesbian and feminist fictions."
~Erin Clair, Feminist Formations
"The "essays in On Joanna Russ reflect the sophisticated work being done on lesbian and feminist fictions.""
~Erin Clair, Feminist Formations
""The author of feminist literary criticism, in addition to science fiction and fantasy, Joanna Russ influenced readers throughout her life since she was first noticed in the late 1960s. During her career, she challenged the male dominated world of science fiction- both in authors and audience.""
~Sarah Mangiola, The Portalist
"The variety of scholarship in On Joanna Russ is stupendous—I enjoyed every minute, was excited and energized and, most importantly, want to go re-read all of Russ with these essays in mind."
~Robin Anne Reid, professor of literature and languages, Texas A&M University–Commerce
"The variety of scholarship in On Joanna Russ is stupendous—I enjoyed every minute, was excited and energized and, most importantly, want to go re-read all of Russ with these essays in mind."
~Robin Anne Reid, professor of literature and languages, Texas A&M University–Commerce
"Joanna Russ is a major figure in the 'New Wave' in science fiction. These essays do a great job of revisiting the importance of Russ's all-too-often-overlooked body of work.""
~Joan Gordon, coeditor of Science Fiction Studies
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