Title: SUBJECTIFICATION, INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITY, AND RECOGNITION WITHIN OPPRESSIVE SYSTEMS

Abbreviated Abstract: This thesis pairs the speculative fiction novels Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler and Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao with critical theories that explore subjectification. Both texts highlight how female protagonists, Lauren Olamina and Wu Zetian, navigate and ultimately resist the regimes that aim to oppress them. Although they begin as victims of these systems, they refuse to be defined by them and assert their agency through acts of resistance. By drawing on theoretical lenses from Jessica Benjamin, Judith Butler, and Louis Althusser that focus on issues of subjectification—how one becomes and lives as a subject—this thesis argues that a demand for recognition and the dynamics of relationality and solidarity serve as tools of resistance against oppression. The purpose of this project is not to showcase the connections between these critical theories and their theorists, but to explore how each novel resonates with different facets of each theory and to examine what is unleashed when authors set their stories in imaginary worlds rather than real ones. While Butler rethinks race, religion, and culture within systemic collapse, Zhao amplifies the spectacle of domination and how oppression makes violent acts counter to domination seemingly necessary. Lauren Olamina rewrites dominant, degenerated ideology through Earthseed and empathy, and Zetian manipulates it by weaponizing and ultimately usurping patriarchal control. Both emphasize different roles of resistance that emerge when subjectivity is denied and reimagined. Ultimately, this thesis argues that speculative fiction does more than mirror society; it reveals new frameworks for thinking about identity, ideology, recognition, and power.