Changing bodies in the fiction of Octavia Butler : slaves, aliens, and vampires

190 Pages·2010·0.78 MB·English

by  Butler

Changing Bodies in the
Fiction of Octavia Butler
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Changing Bodies in the
Fiction of Octavia Butler
Slaves, Aliens, and Vampires
Gregory Jerome Hampton
Lexington Books
A division of
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) Boulder (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
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Published by Lexington Books
A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.lexingtonbooks.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2010 by Lexington Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hampton, Gregory Jerome, 1968-
Changing bodies in the fiction of Octavia Butler : slaves, aliens, and vampires /
Gregory Jerome Hampton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-3787-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-3789-5 (eBook)
1. Butler, Octavia E.—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PS3552.U827Z69 2010
813'.54—dc22 2010026991
(cid:2)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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For my family, Maria, Safi, and Hodari
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Octavia Butler & Science Fiction xi
1 Kindred: History, Revision, and (Re)memory
of Bodies 1
2 Wildseed: The Paradox of Bodily Inscriptions 25
3 Patternmaster: Hierarchies of Identity 47
4 Discussing Duality and the Chthonic: Octavia Butler,
Wole Soyinka, and W.E.B Du Bois 67
5 Religious Science Fiction: Butler’s Changing God 83
6 Migration of the Hybrid Body 99
7 Vampires and Utopia: Reading Racial and Gender Politics
in the Fiction of Octavia Butler 115
Afterword: Vast Frontiers 129
On the Phone with Octavia Butler (October 2002) 133
New Frontier Panel Discussion: Butler, Barnes, Due,
and Hopkinson 135
Bibliography 147
Index 155
vii
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Acknowledgments
Iw ould like to thank Dr. Nahum Chandler for his support and encourage-
ment during my years working on my doctorate degree. Without him, I
would not have been brave enough to write this book. Thanks are also due
to Drs. Doug Taylor, Dana Williams, and Greg Carr for their candid and
insightful draft critiques and intellectual discussions. Dr. Wanda Brooks
played an instrumental role in helping me get my manuscript in the right
hands and for this I am eternally grateful. The students in my “Major Au-
thor” course at Howard University have been creatively influencing this
project for the past seven years. Their heated discussions, never ending
questions and raw passion for Butler’s fiction has been inspirational.
My most heartfelt thanks are due to my wife Maria. Without her love
and support I would not have possessed the time or sanity needed to
produce this book.
Earlier versions of chapters 5 and 7 appeared in the College Language
Association Journal (CLAJ) as “Migration and Capital of the Body: Octavia
Butler’s Parable of the Sower” http://cassell.founders.howard.edu:2109/
citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+AB6B7165%2D6208%2D4564%2DA153%2D2
B319AA6D8E2%40sessionmgr6+dbs+aph+1A9E&_us=frn+1+hd+True+h
s+True+cst+0%3B1%3B2+or+Date+ss+SO+sm+KS+sl+0+dstb+KS+mh+1
+ri+KAAACB1C00056896+5022&_uso=hd+False+tg%5B0+%2D+st%5B0
+%2Dhampton%2C++Gregory+db%5B0+%2Daph+op%5B0+%2D+mdb
%5B0+%2Dimh+0513&fn=1&rn=1 CLAJ 49.1 (Sep2005): 56-73, and “Vam-
pires and Utopia: Reading Racial and Gender Politics in the Fiction of
Octavia Butler” CLAJ 52.1(Sep2008):74-91. I thank the editors of the CLAJ
for permission to reprint this material.
ix
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