Post-Apocalyptic Hoping: Octavia Butler’s Dystopian/Utopian Vision

Abstract

In this essay I argue that Octavia Butler’s work provides fine examples of what Tom Moylan has called the “critical dystopia, ” a narrative which points to the socio-historic causes of the dystopian elements of our culture rather than one which merely reveals symptoms. Butler works through the dystopian elements of the culture and then seeks to create new myths for the postmodern age. She does not offer a full-blown utopian “blueprint” in her work, but rather a post-apocalyptic hoping informed by the lessons of the past. In both the Xenogenesis trilogy and Parable of the Sower, Butler stares into the abyss of the dystopian future and reinvents the desire for a better world. In doing so, she places herself firmly within a rich tradition of feminist utopian writing while also speaking to some of the same issues as Marxist critic Fredric Jameson and postmodern feminist thinkers such as Donna Haraway and Gloria Anzaldùa. (JM)

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