Power Relations and Surrogate Parenthood in Taiwanese Science Fiction : A Study of the Sexual Contract in Chang Hsi-kuo’s short story Anything for my son

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines gendered power relations between the three main characters in Chang Hsi-kuo’s short story Anything for my son. The analysis applied the theoretical framework of Carole Pateman’s The sexual contract to the text and shows that Anything for my son introduces a new condition to the sexual contract: the relinquishment of pregnancy and childbirth, which is introduced and reinforced by the signing of civil contracts and by applying legal, moral, institutional and social pressure to the person. This thesis also explores the relationship between the characters and the city they inhabit. Male sex-right is maintained by the city, through access to the physiological functions of women’s bodies. The City is a dystopia which redefines parental identities for both men and women. Anything for my son shows that dystopia can come about by introducing further power inequality to the sexual contract. Finally, the analysis suggests that parental identity is susceptible to legal, moral, institutional and social pressures.