ABSTRACT
Transparent domes are an essential trope in science fiction (SF) and come in various forms and scales, sheltering (or constricting) whole cities or single persons. Tracing the genealogies of SF’s “dome cultures” from early works inspired by the Crystal Palace with its colonialist implications to their heyday during the Pulp Era and the New Wave, this chapter argues that SF domes are spaces for exploring experimental sociopolitical orders, explicitly addressing mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. Often they are hostile, hermetic environments, especially for women. However, they can also serve as poetological metaphors for establishing “spaces of one’s own,” as a critical reading of core texts by authors like Marlen Haushofer and Ursula K. Le Guin reveals.
