The Bene Gesserit alternative : re-writing, re-inscribing and re-mastering the female body in Frank Herbert's Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse : Dune.

Abstract

This thesis investigates how Frank Herbert in his final two novels, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, specifically through the actions and internal workings of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood as a collective cosmic entity, provide an alternative perspective for women to wield non-violent power. This thesis will also critically examine the means which the Bene Gesserit write themselves “into the world and into history” by virtue of their bodily inscriptions, and achieve agency through their bodies outside of the binary oppositions between men and women.