Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color (New Suns: Race, Gender, and Sexuality) - Softcover

Sanchez-Taylor, Joy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814257976 ISBN 13: 9780814257975

Verlag: The Ohio State University Press, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

Winner, 2021 Northeast Popular Culture Association's Peter C. Rollins Book PrizeDiverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color examines the contributions of late-twentieth- and twenty-first-century US and Canadian science fiction authors of color. By looking at the intersections among science fiction authors of multiple races and ethnicities, Joy Sanchez-Taylor seeks to explain how these authors of color are juxtaposing tropes of science fiction with specific cultural references to comment on issues of inclusiveness in Eurowestern cultures. The central argument of this work is that these authors are challenging science fiction's history of Eurocentric representation through the depiction of communities of color in fantastic or futuristic settings, specifically by using cognitive estrangement and the inclusion of non-Eurowestern cultural beliefs and practices to comment on the alienation of racially dominated groups. By exploring science fiction tropes-such as first contact, genetic modification, post-apocalyptic landscapes, and advanced technologies in the works of Octavia E. Butler, Ted Chiang, Sabrina Vourvoulias, and many others-Sanchez-Taylor demonstrates how authors of various races and ethnicities write science fiction that pays homage to the genre while also creating a more diverse and inclusive portrait of the future.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Joy Sanchez-Taylor is Associate Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College and author of Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color.

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Diverse Futures examines the contributions of late twentieth- and twenty-first-century US and Canadian science fiction authors of color to the genre. By examining intersections between science fiction authors of multiple races and ethnicities, this text seeks to explain how science fiction authors of color are juxtaposing tropes of science fiction with specific cultural references to comment on issues of inclusiveness in Eurowestern cultures. Fortunately, there are too many science fiction or science fiction–related texts written by authors of color to include them all; therefore, this project will focus on science fiction texts that go beyond including characters of color in the narrative and, instead, make people of color and their cultural experiences an integral part of their narratives, a distinction that Isiah Lavender III defines as an “ethnoscape,” or racialized science fiction environment that both highlights and reconceives depictions of race to unpack the assumptions about race and ethnicity often made in science fiction writing (“Ethnoscapes” 189). While some of the authors or texts included in this work may not be currently classified as science fiction, all the texts can be considered ethnoscapes, and each text includes an element or trope that is associated with the science fiction genre.

The definition of science fiction is constantly in flux as authors and critics shape and reshape its boundaries. I am less interested in arguing for a strict definition of science fiction than I am in showing how the authors I examine are working to challenge the genre’s Eurocentricity. Many of the authors in this study juxtapose descriptions of technology and myth, blurring genre distinctions in favor of creating texts that avoid the binary of primitive versus advanced cultures. Kinitra D. Brooks notes that women of color who blur genre distinctions between science fiction, fantasy, and horroroften have their works overlooked or oversimplified by literary critics (56). 

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I am also specifically choosing the phrase “science fiction” over the broader descriptor “speculative fiction” because while speculative fiction is quickly gaining traction in scholarly texts, the majority of publishers and science fiction fans do not use this term. P. L. Thomas notes that many authors who resisted the label of “science fiction” in favor of “speculative fiction,” such as Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood, mainly did so because of the scholarly association of science fiction as not literary and, therefore, not worthy of serious study (1–2). Brooks also notes, “In its contemporary iteration, speculative fiction has developed into a lackadaisical umbrella term for any fiction remotely related to genre literature” (65). I argue that this extremely broad genre term creates confusion among publishers and fans, which leads to many science fiction authors of color not being recognized and supported by the science fiction community. In Diverse Futures, I am taking my study back to the original term “science fiction” to acknowledge the place of authors of color in this genre and the presence of people of color in alternate and future worlds. Many of the authors discussed in this collection are also recipients of some of science fiction’s most prestigious awards such as the Hugo and Nebula awards. It is my hope that discussing the authors in these works as science fiction authors, rather than speculative authors, will help readers interested in science fiction discover texts and authors that do not always make it to the science fiction sections of bookstores and book-reviewing websites. I am not speculating that there will be people of color in the future; I am stating an important fact.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: The Ohio State University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0814257976
• ISBN 13: 9780814257975
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 200
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland