Treasured Strangers: Race, Biopolitics, and the Human in Octavia E. Butler’s XENOGENESIS Trilogy.
The XENOGENESIS trilogy, written during a period of rapid growth in the neoliberal bioeconomy in the United States, is increasingly relevant today, when our ability to manipulate life has outstripped the ethical and theoretical considerations of reproductive/genetic research and technologies. In thi...
| Publicado en: | Science Fiction Studies Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 506 - 526 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Literary Criticism |
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University of California Press
Nov2017
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=125962549&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 125962549 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00917729 SFS jtl: Science Fiction Studies issn: 00917729 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2017 vid: 44 iid: 3 pid: 414 pub: University of California Press artinfo: ui: 125962549 10.5621/sciefictstud.44.3.0506 ppf: 506 ppct: 20 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 992KB tig: atl: Treasured Strangers: Race, Biopolitics, and the Human in Octavia E. Butler’s XENOGENESIS Trilogy. aug: au: Dowdall, Lisa su: Xenogenesis (Book) Butler, Octavia E., 1947-2006 Trilogies (Literature) Race in literature Apartheid in literature Colonies in literature Symbiogenesis Human evolution sug: subj: Xenogenesis (Book) Butler, Octavia E., 1947-2006 Trilogies (Literature) Race in literature Apartheid in literature Colonies in literature Symbiogenesis Human evolution ab: The XENOGENESIS trilogy, written during a period of rapid growth in the neoliberal bioeconomy in the United States, is increasingly relevant today, when our ability to manipulate life has outstripped the ethical and theoretical considerations of reproductive/genetic research and technologies. In this essay I seek to bring the trilogy into conversation with a broader dialogue around reproduction in relation to race, drawing on discussions of scientific racism and medical apartheid. Butler’s work draws on a variety of biopolitical discourses and is deeply concerned with the figure of the black woman as breeder, the history of reproduction as eugenics, and the contemporary “tissue economies” (Waldby and Mitchell) that continue to exploit the reproductive labor of non-white and third-world bodies. The XENOGENESIS trilogy illuminates the links between colonialism and biological capital, and uses apocalypse to show how the “human” is constantly being discursively and biologically reconstructed. By contrasting the genetic determinism of the Oankali with humans’ insistence on biological and reproductive independence, Butler enacts a politics of ambivalence that situates reproduction as an ongoing dialectical process within the context of broader ecological systems. Although her work is certainly concerned with genetic engineering, she emphasizes the importance of generation rather than reproduction, articulating a theory of symbiogenesis that sees human evolution as reliant on dynamic relationships with other species and environments. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Science Fiction Studies is the property of University of California Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Science Fiction Studies holder: University of California Press dt: @attributes: year: 2017 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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