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The Trouble with Individualism: Social Being in Le Guin and Delany

Braham, Kira R
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1368052953

Abstract Details

2013, BA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
KIRA BRAHAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH THE TROUBLE WITH INDIVIDUALISM: SOCIAL BEING IN LE GUIN AND DELANY (72 pp.) Advisor: Kevin Floyd This thesis examines four works of speculative fiction: The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand and Trouble on Triton by Samuel R. Delany. It also considers at length the early works of Karl Marx and his dialectical method. I propose that the societies imagined in the works of Le Guin and Delany challenge the concept of individualism as proposed by capitalist ideology and provide productive ways in which to consider the Marxian philosophy of the individual as social being. I argue that individualism as an abstract concept is damaging to the substantive individuality which is formed only through the real interaction involved in the construction of communal identities. This thesis seeks to combat misunderstandings concerning the leveling effects of communal identity by examining the ways in which the texts considered present the individual as simultaneously unique and communal in nature. In presenting alternative understandings of individuality, these texts substantially challenge established norms concerning the relationship of the individual to labor, political systems, domestic life, and her own sexuality.
Kevin Floyd, PhD (Advisor)
72 p.
Gender Studies; Labor Relations; Literature; Modern Literature
Marxism; labor; socialism; Le Guin; Delany; science fiction; individualism; social being

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Braham, K. R. (2013). The Trouble with Individualism: Social Being in Le Guin and Delany [Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1368052953

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Braham, Kira. The Trouble with Individualism: Social Being in Le Guin and Delany . 2013. Kent State University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1368052953.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Braham, Kira. "The Trouble with Individualism: Social Being in Le Guin and Delany ." Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1368052953

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2013, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The Trouble with Individualism: Social Being in Le Guin and Delany by Kira R Braham is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University Honors College and OhioLINK.