Race, Colonialism, and Science Fiction

1. Race in science fiction

2. Race in science fiction

3. Race in science fiction

Why is race not represented in scifi?

Recurring issues explored

• Physical diversity

• Cultural diversity

• Speech/language

• Ethnicity and traditions

chronology

• 1960-70 human right/anti-racist movement

• 1967 Teatro Campesino (Chicana Culture)

• 1974 Sun Ra and his Arkestra featured in “Space is

the Place” (Afro-American culture)

• 1987 Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa

• 1990-on Guillermo Gomez Pena

• 1994 Mark Dery (defined Afrofuturism)

Chicana-futurism 1987

-Narrates colonial and postcolonial histories of "indigenismo", "mestizaje", hegemony, and survival.

-how chicano/chicana are 1.alienated from technologies

2.have to work with/are affected by them

Borderland /la Frontera

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1987)

"new mestiza" = individual aware of her conflicting and meshing identities and uses these "new angles of vision" to challenge binary thinking in the Western World

Guillermo Gomez Pena

Mark Dery : “Mainstream science fiction takes inspiration from things that are going on in society, but often does not include the viewpoint of those in the African Diaspora. In the spirit of filling in this gap, the artists and writers in the Afro-futurist tradition seek to include us in the future settings that we are often left out of."

Afrofuturism 1994

What is it?

The Midnight Robber

• Synthesis of different genres

• Hybrid language (creole)

The Midnight Robber

Triangular Trade

Carnival culture

• http://www.tntisland.com/carnivalcharacters.html 

• http://www.tntisland.com/folklore.html

Trinidad & Tobago Myths

1. Douen: lost souls of children that had not yet been baptized or christened.

2. Eshu messenger between human and divine worlds, Undergod of duality, crossroads and beginnings, and also a phallic and fertility Undergod.