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- Title
Kill the Bugger: "Ender's Game" and the Question of Heteronormativity.
- Authors
Campbell, James
- Abstract
This essay offers a reading of Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel "Ender's Game" in terms of its treatment of homosexuality. After reviewing Card's handling of the topic in his earlier works of sf, where it was presented more explicitly, the essay shows how "Ender's Game" continues to engage the issue in disguised ways: through its naming of the alien enemy "buggers" to its anti-sentimental construction of childhood eroticism to the subtly sexualized violence to which protagonist Ender Wiggin is subjected. Finally, it compares the higher tolerance for sexual difference in Card's sf with his more condemnatory statements as a commentator on contemporary cultural/sexual politics.
- Subjects
ENDER'S Game (Book); CARD, Orson Scott, 1951-; HETERONORMATIVITY; HOMOSEXUALITY in literature; WIGGIN, Ender (Fictional character); AUTHORS
- Publication
Science Fiction Studies, 2009, Vol 36, Issue 3, p490
- ISSN
0091-7729
- Publication type
Essay