Women’s Agency in the Dune Universe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction: The Sidelining of the Women of Dune

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages 1-25

3. Mind-Body Synergy

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages 27-68

4. Reproduction and Motherhood

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages 69-102

5. Voices

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages 103-135

6. Education and Memory

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages 137-175

7. Sexuality

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages 177-214

8. Conclusion

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages 215-220

9. Correction to: Women’s Agency in the Dune Universe

   • Kara Kennedy

   Pages C1-C1

10. Back Matter

    Pages 221-239

    PDF

This book undertakes the first large-scale analysis of women’s agency in Frank Herbert’s six-book science fiction Dune series. Kara Kennedy explores how female characters in the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood—from Jessica to Darwi Odrade—secure control and influence through five avenues of embodied agency: mind-body synergy, reproduction and motherhood, voices, education and memory, and sexuality. She also discusses constraints on their agency, tensions between individual and collective action, and comparisons with other characters including the Mentats, Bene Tleilaxu, and Honored Matres. The book engages with second-wave feminist theories and historical issues to highlight how the series anticipated and paralleled developments in the women’s liberation movement. In this context, it addresses issues regarding sexual difference and solidarity, as well as women’s demand to have control over their bodies. Kennedy concludes that the series should be acknowledged as a significant contribution to the genre as part of both New Wave and feminist science fiction.

• Science Fiction
• Literature, Gender and Sexuality
• second-wave feminism
• Gender and STS
• Literature, Science and Medicine Studies
• Dune
• Frank Herbert
• bodily agency
• feminist science fiction

• Auckland, New Zealand

  Kara Kennedy

Kara Kennedy is a researcher, writer, and educator in the areas of science fiction, digital literacy, and writing. She is an avid scholar of Dune who has lectured and published on various topics including world-building. She posts literary analyses of Dune for a mainstream audience on her blog DuneScholar.com.

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