Özet:

The aim of this study is to examine the subversive element of science fiction as a literary genre. Even though this area of literature established itself as a rather androcentric type of writing, mainly authored by male writers, the genre itself renders itself suitable for reimagining alternative realities. This paper focuses on woman writers who created invaluable works that are termed feminist utopia or feminist science fiction. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a pioneer with her all-woman utopian society in her 1915 novel Herland. One of her followers in this genre is James Tiptree, Jr., who became a household name in the science fiction world, and who in her turn, creates alternate worlds in her fiction, such as “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” where gender constructs are questioned and re-envisioned. Both Gilman’s and Tiptree’s fiction present different realities that are free from a dichotomous and sexist culture which pervades a patriarchal world. This gender duality gives way to a hierarchical order and all of its devastating results for civilization and the female sex. Both writers discussed in this paper created worlds where gender duality is non- existent, and hence, free of all its consequences.