Utopia, Dystopia, and Ideology in the Science Fiction of Octavia Butler

Abstract

Octavia Butler advances notions of human nature and politics which include the belief that human nature is violent and biologically determined. For her, politics is incapable of improving the human condition. Her works are especially utopian when she describes alien societies. The ideological elements in her works link her to many other 1970s’ feminist SF works which, although utopian, are essentially liberal. Butler shares with them similar views on human nature, views which are rooted in an ideology of gender difference developed in the late 19th century by opponents to women’s equality. Her works, however, contain one element of racial estrangement not found in most SF and feminist SF: fully developed characters of color. This inclusion at once enriches and rebukes liberal feminist ideology and SF. (HMZ)

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