BUCH
Of Bodies, Communities, and Voices
Agency in Writings by Octavia Butler
American Studies – A Monograph Series, Bd. 262
2015
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Abstract
This study investigates the narrative contribution of texts by African American science fiction author Octavia Butler to ongoing philosophical debates about the conceptualization of agency. These debates have been central and highly controversial both within the context of postmodern de- and reconstructions of the Subject and within the ongoing struggle of feminism, critical race studies, and other schools of thought for social justice. Discussing five novels and one short story by Butler, this book demonstrates that these texts, creatively referencing African American literary traditions, do not only individually perform multifaceted theoretical work regarding agency. They also engage in an intertextual dialogue with each other on the ethical and theoretical complexities of agency, specifically in relation to three categories at the heart of African American (women’s) cultural history: body, community, and voice.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
| Zwischenüberschrift | Seite | Aktion | Preis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | C | ||
| Titel | 3 | ||
| Impressum | 4 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 7 | ||
| Contents | 9 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 11 | ||
| 2 Agency | 27 | ||
| 3 Body: The Necessity and Dangers of Embodied Conceptualizations of Agency | 37 | ||
| 3.1 Contexts: Agency and the Body | 39 | ||
| 3.2 Embodied Agency in Works by Octavia Butler | 47 | ||
| 3.2.1 Narrating the Body, Narrating Agency: Kindred’s Insistence on Conceptualizing Agency as Embodied | 48 | ||
| 3.2.2 An Ideology of Total Embodiment: Dawn as a Cautionary Tale | 66 | ||
| 3.3 Concluding Thoughts | 98 | ||
| 4 Community: The Relationality of Agency and Relational Agential Acts | 101 | ||
| 4.1 Contexts: Autonomy, Relational Agency, and the Importance of Community in African American Literature | 104 | ||
| 4.2 The Relationality of Agency in Works by Octavia Butler | 117 | ||
| 4.2.1 “We Can Choose”: Relational Agency and Community Building in Parable of the Talents | 118 | ||
| 4.2.2 “Are You Really One of Them, Lanna?”: Relational Agency and Community Choosing in Survivor | 142 | ||
| 4.3 Concluding Thoughts | 166 | ||
| 5 Voice: The Textual Agential Act of First-Person Narration | 169 | ||
| 5.1 Contexts: First-Person Narration and Agency in African American Literature | 172 | ||
| 5.2 First-Person Narration and Agency in Works by Octavia Butler | 184 | ||
| 5.2.1 Narrating a Coherent Self: The Agential Potential of Voice in “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” | 184 | ||
| 5.2.2 “Shori Matthews Has Told Us the Truth”: Unreliable Narration and the Complexities of Agency in Fledgling | 196 | ||
| 5.3 Concluding Thoughts | 216 | ||
| 6 Conclusion | 219 | ||
| Works Cited | 223 |
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