Emerging Cyborg Identities: Gender, and Feminism in Foundryside through Gee and Haraway's Lenses

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the gender identity of cyborg character Sancia in Robert Jackson Bennett’s novel Foundryside. Sancia represents the theoretical concept of emerging feminism as she is that part of a cyborg which can be considered as a new type of female figure. Through a close reading of Foundryside, this research examines Sancia’s changing identity. Using Gee’s (2014) discourse analysis approach, Sancia’s identity and activitiess are analysed in the selected passages of the text. This is followed by a discussion of how Sancia’s post-humanity breaks down and reconstitutes conventional feminine signs trough Harraway’s Lense. Findings of the study indicate that Sancia’s cyborg status erases the gender binary system since it fuses simplication/exteriorisation yet embraces an organic and mechanical. This emerging identity offers fresh perspective on how female cyborgs are constructed as self-steering, non-binary gendered characters in speculative fiction. Erasing the binary between man and machine, this research extends the framework of feminist posthumanism and opens up the scholarly discussion of gender identity in speculative fiction.