Date of Award

4-2024

Thesis Access

Open Access Honors Thesis

Thesis Location

Honors College Thesis

Degree Name

B.A.

Department

English

Faculty Advisor

Michael Schmidt

Abstract

The study of asexuality is still a relatively new concept in queer studies, and the rarity of asexual literature poses questions about how media can help further develop this study. This question takes unique shape in the genre of science fiction, one deeply and intrinsically tied to queer storytelling but very often hypersexualized. This essay evaluates the asexual themes of four sci-fi short stories which predate modern vocabularies and frameworks of asexuality: “The Widget, The Wadget, and Boff” by Theodore Sturgeon, “Unchosen Love” and “Mountain Ways” by Ursula K. Le Guin, and “Aye, and Gomorrah” by Samuel Delany. Referencing queer theory which suggests that asexuality can help expand understandings of queerness as a whole, this essay focuses not directly on modern ideas of asexuality, but rather how non-sexual intimacy interacts with overarching queer themes in each narrative. This also reveals a healthy assortment of asexual tropes in particular, as well as how these interact with other forms of narrative, including disability narratives, culture narratives, and gender narratives. Using this, in addition to genre and form analysis of science fiction and short fiction, this essay comes to a conclusion on the fundamental utility of short form science fiction in telling asexual stories. Ultimately, it seems that the strengths of both form and genre create a noteworthy and relatively unexplored opportunity to use the science fiction short story to further explore asexuality in literature and bolster queer studies.

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