A Cyborg Manifesto

Haraway concludes this final section of her Manifesto by thanking the thinkers and writers who inspired her. She first thanks a series of science fiction writers, most of whom are known for using their fiction to comment on social issues. Among these names are Joanna Russ, Samuel R. Delany, and Octavia Butler. Haraway doesn’t expand on exactly how each of these writers inspires her, but she comments that they are “storytellers exploring what it means to be embodied in high-tech worlds” as well as “theorists for cyborgs” (52). 

Joanna Russ is best known for her science fiction novel The Female Male, which is about women who visit parallel universes to see how different models of gender roles function from the outside. The title refers to a character who has both male and female characteristics, and so is a sort of cyborg. Octavia Butler wrote a number of novels, such as Adulthood Rites, and short stories, including The Evening and the Morning and the Night, many of which focus implicitly on gender and race relations, and intersectionality specifically. A typical reader of either science fiction or feminist theory may be unfamiliar with the intersection of these two very different genres of writing.