The Otherworlds of the Mind: Loci of Resistance in Ursula K. Le Guin’s

The Word for World Is Forest and Voices (Book II of the Annals of the Western Shore)

Abstract

Space is of utmost importance in Ursula K. Le Guin’s fantasy and science fiction works, in which it often functions as a metaphor for the mind. The heterotopic spaces in the novella The Word for World Is Forest (one of the works in her Hainish cycle) and in the novel Voices (book II of the Annals of the Western Shore series) serve as loci of resistance: otherworlds mirroring the consciousness of entire cultures fighting for survival. This paper analyzes the way in which two drastically different forms of resistance, violent and
peaceful, unfold in the mindspaces of their respective cultures.