IMAGINING GLOBAL FEMALE FUTURES IN BLACK SPECULATIVE AND SCIENCE FICTION A Dissertation by AMANDA RENEE RICO Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Shona Jackson Committee Members, Ira Dworkin Carmela Garritano Lucia Hodgson Head of Department, Maura Ives August 2018 Major Subject: English Copyright 2018 Amanda Renee Rico ABSTRACT The goal of this study stems from one primary question: how are black women’s futures currently being imagined in works of cultural production? In this dissertation, I make the case that speculative and science fiction is currently trending as a medium through which to radically reimagine black women’s subjectivity around the world. Moreover, the futures conceptualized in these films and texts provide a refreshing perspective on how black women are theorizing about their subjectivities. Their imaginings also challenge us to reconsider what theorizing looks like, and reflect on widening the scope of black women’s discourses of difference. In the readings of my focal works, I trace three main tensions present in transcontinental works typically characterized as black speculative and science fiction. The first is the impact of ecological abuse on black women’s lives. The second tension involves the transgression of national boundaries (i.e. immigration, diaspora, displaced populations). The third and final tension includes exploitative gender relations within the postcolonial African context (i.e. postcolonial power structures, women’s role in framing nationalist discourse). Within the context of my dissertation chapters, each of these three tensions is addressed through archetypal imagery. Through my reading of figures like the zombie, cyborg, vampire, superhuman, and a figure I call the anthropomorphoid, I demonstrate how these texts and films explore black women’s subjectivity. Ultimately, I conclude that these archetypes position black women as agents of change and producers of knowledge who not only survive but are instrumental to the construction of a global future. ii DEDICATION To my beautiful and spunky chouchou, Inés Elodie. May the world you grow up in help you blossom into a woman who embraces her unique cultural heritage and finds empowerment in her femininity. Les étoiles sont là pour toi, ma puce. iii CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES Contributors This dissertation was supported by a dissertation committee consisting of Professor Shona Jackson, Committee Chair and Professor Ira Dworkin of the Department of English, Professor Carmela Garritano of the Department of Film and Africana Studies, and Professor Lucia Hodgson of the Department of English. All other work conducted for this dissertation was completed by the student independently. Funding Sources Graduate study was supported by a teaching fellowship and a dissertation research fellowship from Texas A&M University Department of English. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………………… ii DEDICATION ………………………………………………………………………………… iii CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ………………………………………....... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………………. v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: IMAGINING BLACK WOMEN’S FUTURES IN BLACK SPECULATIVE AND SCIENCE FICTION……………………………………………............ 1 Troubling Genre: What is Speculative and Science Fiction? …………………………... 5 Transnational Texts, Diasporic Communities ………………………………………….. 10 Global Futures: Situating Black Speculative Thought …………………………………. 13 Beyond Genre: The Transnational Connections Shaping Global Black Futures ………. 22 Black Female Futures and Diasporic Community Building …………………………... 27 Speculative Archetypes and Black Women’s Futures ………………………………… 33 Description of Chapters ……………………………………………………………….. 36 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….. 40 CHAPTER II THEORIZING BLACK WOMEN’S FUTURES………………………………. 41 Speculations on Race and Gender …………………………………………………….. 42 Why Black Female Futures? …………………………………………………………... 48 Black Women’s Theories of Difference and the Speculative …………………………. 51 What Does a Global Black Female Future Look Like? ……………………………….. 57 Why the Cyborg, Zombie, Vampire, Superhero, and Anthropomorphoid?…………..... 60 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………... 62 CHAPTER III GENDERED ECOLOGIES: WANGECHI MUTU, IBI ZOBOI, AND ANTHROPOMORPHISM……………………..………………………………………………. 64 Ecofeminism and its Discontents ……………………………………………………… 67 Contextualizing the Anthropomorphoid: Definition and Use ………………………… 70 Mutu’s Anthropomorphic Future ……………………………………………………… 75 Gendered Anthropomorphoids and Haitian Futures ………………………………….. 81 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………... 91 v CHAPTER IV DIASPORIC SUPERHEROINES IN NNEDI OKORAFOR’S THE BOOK OF PHOENIX AND NALO HOPKINSON’S BROWN GIRL IN THE RING …………….……... 93 Migratory Subjectivities and Black Women’s Speculative Fiction ………………….. 95 Contextualizing the Black Superhero/Superheroine …………………………………. 100 The Ambivalent Superheroine: Diasporic Origins in The Book of Phoenix ………….. 104 Santeria as Superpower in Brown Girl in the Ring …………………………………… 117 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………. 129 CHAPTER V CYBORGS, ZOMBIES, AND VAMPIRES: THE GENDERED POLITICS OF DYSTOPIA IN JEAN-PIERRE BEKOLO’S LES SAIGNANTES………..………………….. 130 Framing the Dystopian African Postcolony: On Commandement, Necropower, and Death-Worlds …………………………………………………………………………. 132 Mutual Zombification and Gendered Resistance …………………………………….. 136 Contextualizing Les Saignantes: Cinematic and Scholarly Reception ……………….. 140 Bekolo’s Reclamation of the Postcolonial African State …………………………….. 143 Destabalizing Dystopia: Cyborgs, Vampires, and Zombies …………………………. 148 The Vampire and Mevoungou …………………………………….…………………. 158 Cyborgian Sexuality ………………………………………………………………….. 162 Bekolo’s Zombified Male Citizenry …………………………………………………. 166 Conclusion …………………..…………………………………….…………………. 170 CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION: TOWARD GLOBAL BLACK FEMALE FUTURES ……. 172 WORKS CITED …………………………………………………………………………….... 178 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: IMAGINING WOMEN’S FUTURES IN BLACK SPECULATIVE AND SCIENCE FICTION Recently, speculative and science fiction imagery has become ubiquitous in contemporary popular culture. One need only look at the surging popularity of shows and films such as the Blade franchise (1998, 2002, 2004), the Underworld franchise (2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2016), The Walking Dead series (2010-2018), the Fear the Walking Dead series (2015 to the present), and the Westworld series (2016 to the present), not to mention films and stand-alone series based on D.C. and Marvel comic book characters (i.e. Batman, Wonder Woman, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Justice League, The Avengers, etc.). Today’s use of speculative imagery is broad and expansive in terms of the archetypes used, and typically relates to relevant aspirations and anxieties present in the public imaginary. As the emergence of social media, the forces of globalization, and various economic crashes weigh on the minds of those who have lived through the last decade, speculative imagery is presently trending as a mode through which to explore the consequences of our collective actions and propose potential remedies for the future. Topics found in mainstream discourse are often reflected in contemporary speculative and science fiction texts, with intersections between race and gender figuring prominently. For instance, Diana Adesola Mafe’s newly-released book, Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before: Subversive Portrayals in Speculative Film and TV (2018), highlights the significance of black women featured in science and speculative fiction films and television series. Beginning with Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) in the American classic Star Trek television series (1966-1969), Mafe traces representations of black women throughout speculative and science 1 fiction filmic history. While many representations found in late twentieth-century speculative films tend to perpetuate what Mafe refers to as the “reinforcement of white male authority at the expense of Otherness and a predictable eroticization of black womanhood,” she argues for the potential of the genre to “show viewers something new” (2). Mafe also asserts that speculative fiction “implies limitless potential where raced and gendered imaginaries are concerned” primarily because it has and continues to be “a remarkable site of possibility when it comes to interrogating and reinventing social constructs such as race, gender, and class” (3). Dominating the global box office with a record one billion in sales in just twenty-six days, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (2018) illustrates Mafe’s comments on reinventing race and gender using speculative and science fiction (Rubin 2018). The first film in the Marvel cinematic universe with a predominantly black cast, Black Panther uses speculative imagery as a vehicle through which to imagine ‘black power’ in a uniquely Pan-African context. As a Hollywood- funded film created in America but released to a global box office, with a narrative that privileges the role of Africans as integral players in the world’s geo-political sphere, Black Panther can be read as both a product of and response to globalization and its impact on black populations around the world. Black Panther’s depiction of a technologically progressive Afro-future is both refreshing and timely. The film’s rejection of negative stereotyping concerning Africa, representation of egalitarian gender roles, and reimagining of