Black Atlantic Speculative Fictions: Octavia E. Butler, Jewelle Gomez, and Nalo Hopkinson Contributor(s): Thaler, Ingrid (Author) |
|
ISBN: 0415804418 ISBN-13: 9780415804417 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $180.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2010 Annotation: Thaler argues that the recent growth of speculative fictions by black writers has brought forth a genre of its own called Black Atlantic Speculative Fiction. Speculative fiction is an umbrella term for all kinds of fantastic writing, including utopian and science fiction, and in this volume Thaler looks at contemporary novels by female authors of speculative fiction including Octavia E. Butler, Jewelle Gomez, and Nalo Hopkinson, amongst others. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - African American - Literary Criticism | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
Dewey: 813.540 |
LCCN: 2009023778 |
Series: Routledge Research in Atlantic Studies |
Physical Information: 0.66" H x 6.6" W x 9.26" (0.89 lbs) 194 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Since the 1980s, an increasing number of black writers have begun publishing speculative-fantastic fictions such as fantasy, gothic, utopian and science fiction. Writing into two literary traditions that are conventionally considered separate -- white speculative genres and black literary-cultural traditions -- the texts integrate an African American sensibility of the past within the present, with speculative fiction's sensibility of the present within the future. Thaler takes stock of this trend by proposing that the growing number of texts has brought forth a genre of its own. She analyzes recent fictions by Octavia E. Butler, Jewelle Gomez, and Nalo Hopkinson as in-between color-coded literary and cultural traditions by paying particular attention to concepts of literary history and time as well as postcolonial notions of hybridity and mimicry, race, and identity. The study treads on new ground since it not only offers a broader scope of the various speculative genres in which established and emerging black authors currently publish, but also shows that these fictions contest conventionally accepted notions of white genres and black traditions and, in consequence, of (post-)postmodern literature and popular fiction. |