Publication Date

2024

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Gorman, David J.

Degree Name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Legacy Department

Department of English

Abstract

This dissertation examines the longer works of British colonial author James Graham Ballard. Specifically, it attempts to answer the long-deflected question posed over the decades to Ballard regarding the treatment of female characters in his fiction. Though espousing liberal feminist ideals at times, Ballard’s repeated use of the lamia/damsel archetype, often in the same female character, strongly suggests he believed otherwise. Using predominantly radical-cultural feminist criticism as a critical lens, specifically the works of Ballard’s long-time nemesis Andrea Dworkin, this study focuses predominantly on the thematic tetralogies of Ballard’s fiction: the ecological disasters of the 1960s, the “techno-barbarism” of the early 1970s, the faux messiah stories that stretched from the mid-1970s into the 1990s, and the final thematic period of detective fiction that dominated the final years of Ballard’s literary career. With Ballard’s two “autobiographies,” Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women (and the establishment of the lamia archetype in the Vermilion Sands short story collection published in tandem with the ecological disaster novels), female characters in Ballard’s fiction resemble Dworkin’s nightmares made manifest as they become the sexual equivalent to Chekov’s revolver. Ballard’s feet must be held to the flame, even if posthumously.

Extent

216 pages

Language

en

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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