Kill the Bugger: Ender's Game and the Question of Heteronormativity

    Authors

    J. Campbell

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Sci.-Fict. Stud.

    Keywords

    Literature

    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.

    Journal Title

    Science-Fiction Studies

    Volume

    36

    Publication Date

    1-1-2009

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    490

    Last Page

    507

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000271842100023

    ISSN

    0091-7729

    Share

    COinS