Native Tongue (Native Tongue Trilogy) - Softcover

Suzette Haden Elgin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558612467 ISBN 13: 9781558612464

Publisher: THE FEMINIST PRESS, 2000

Synopsis

It is the year 2205 and the women of Earth are once again property. Two women, Nazareth and Michaela - one a brilliant linguist, the other a rebel servant - are destined to challenge the power of men. What neither woman realises is that a revolution is already underway: women, hidden away in Barren houses, are slowly creating a language of their own to free them from men's control and make resistance possible for all women. As Michaela and Nazareth's worlds collide, each of their secrets threatens to reveal the presence of a women's native tongue.

About this title

Review:

"Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue trilogy, a classic text of angry feminism, is also an exemplary experiment in speculative fiction, deftly and implacably pursuing both a scientific hypothesis and an ideological hypothesis through all their social, moral, and emotional implications." --Ursula K. Le Guin, author of The Left Hand of Darkness

"Less well known than the The Handmaid's Tale but just as apocalyptic in [its] vision . . . Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue. . . records female tribulation in a world where . . . women have no public rights at all. Elgin's heroines do, however, have one set of weapons--words of their own." --Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The New York Times Book Review

"Native Tongue brings to life not only the possibility of a women's language, but also the rationale for one. . . . [It is] a language that can bring to life concepts men have never needed, have never dreamed of--and thus change the world. Elgin never makes the mistake of easy utopiansim or over-optimism. Her women revel in patience." --Voice Literary Supplement

"As a nonreader of science fiction . . . I urge Native Tongue upon you. . . . Like Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale but more drastically and distinctly, Elgin has carried current fundamentalist views on women to their 'logical' conclusion. . . . Above all she understands that until women find the words and syntax for what they need to say, they will never say it, nor will the world hear it. . . . There isn't a phony or romantic moment here, and the story is absolutely compelling." --Women's Review of Books

"Elgin's novel will inspire those who believe that women's words can change the world. Read it!"
--Marleen S. Barr, author of Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond

From the Publisher:

THE FEMINIST SCIENCE FICTION CLASSIC BACK IN PRINT

About this edition

• Publisher: THE FEMINIST PRESS
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1558612467
• ISBN 13: 9781558612464
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 327