The Black Imagination, Science Fiction and the Speculative

by Sandra Jackson (Editor), Julie Moody Freeman (Editor)

Overview

This book expands the discourse as well as the nature of critical commentary on science fiction, speculative fiction and futurism – literary and cinematic by Black writers. The range of topics include the following: black superheroes; issues and themes in selected works by Octavia Butler; selected work of Nalo Hopkinson; the utopian and dystopian impulse in the work of W.E. B. Du Bois and George Schuyler; Derrick Bell’s Space Traders; the Star Trek Franchise; female protagonists through the lens of race and gender in the Alien and Predator film franchises; science fiction in the Caribbean Diaspora; commentary on select African films regarding near-future narratives; as well as a science fiction/speculative literature writer’s discussion of why she writes and how. This book was published as a special issue of African Identities: An International Journal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138864511
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/04/2015
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sandra Jackson is a Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at DePaul University.

Julie Moody-Freeman is an Associate Professor of African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul University.

Table of Contents

Editorial note: the genre of science fiction and the black imagination Sandra Jackson and Julie Moody-Freeman

1.Brave black worlds: black superheroes as science fiction ciphers Adilifu Nama

2.Arboreal dialogics: an ecocritical exploration of Octavia Butler’s Dawn Andrew Plisner

3.But that’s just mad! Reading the utopian impulse in Dark princess and Black empire Amor Kohli

4.Vanishing bodies: ‘race’ and technology in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight robber Elizabeth Boyle

5.Earthling dreams in black and white: space, representation and US racial politics in
‘The space traders’ Julie Moody-Freeman

6.‘Explorers’ – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Micheal Charles Pounds

7.Terrans, extraterrestrials, warriors and the last (wo)man standing Sandra Jackson

8.Cognition’s warp: African films on near-future risk Taiwo Adetunji Osinubi

9.Organic fantasy Nnedi Okorafor