| Summary: | The analysis of gender in science fiction tends to focus on women. Here I focus instead on the gender issues concerning masculinity raised in Black Man/Thirteen, a novel by British writer Richard Morgan. Using the framework of masculinity studies, I argue that whereas Morgan launches a thorough attack against patriarchal masculinity through his main character, Carl Marsalis, both author and (anti)hero fail to construct an alternative. Morgan uses in his novel the conventions of the detective thriller, a subgenre which usually narrates how an extremely individualistic man solves a particular case without actually correcting social injustice. Morgan characterizes Marsalis in this way, presenting him as the monstrous product of military engineering and complicating this monstrosity by making Carl black. The novel works well as narrative, and the (anti)hero is undoubtedly appealing, while Morgan's discourse is quite solid. Yet a certain dead end is reached in terms of the male writer's use of sf; for there is no speculative undoing of the social ills caused by patriarchy.
|
|---|