HETERONORMATIVITY OF THE AMBISEXUAL. A Queer Reading of the Science Fiction Novel The Left Hand of Darkness

Abstract: The utopian genre exists predominantly in science fiction and has in the twentieth century been extensively explored in feminist literature. Ursula K. Le Guin is considered one of the leading authors in this genre and has created numerous thought experiments concerned with gender construction and its problematics. The aim for this essay is to examine the probability of queer gender identities and sexuality in the ambisexual society of Gethen in the science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness, and the possibility of this world being a gender utopia. From a close reading of selected passages, and by relying on queer theory and Judith Butler’s ideas of gender, this essay will look critically at the ambisexual society and its heteronormativity. Furthermore, a meticulous analysis of the main characters Estraven and Genly Ai, as well as the marginalized so called “abnormals”, will be made to establish queerness within the novel. These discussions enable the significance of other aspects of gender rather than solely being biological.