The Literary Genre Of Science Fiction

When Star Trek came on the air in 1966, it presented a future where people were not limited by the color of their skin or their gender. Gene Roddenberry’s fictional universe showed the possibilities that existed where humans could get past the issues that were prevalent in the 1960s. Through the allegory that Star Trek used, the audience was able to view current and pressing issues, race and gender, through the medium of television. The civil rights movement and the feminist movement both began in the 1960s, and Star Trek reflected the issues and gave a setting for people to discuss them through the use of metaphor.

As a black man, Samuel Delany has experienced discrimination and racism in a number of settings. However, as a Science Fiction writer he mostly explores racism in that community. Samuel Delany’s, “Racism and Science Fiction” explores how “Racism is a system. As such, it is fueled as much by chance as by hostile intentions and equally the best intentions as well. It is whatever systematically acclimates people, of all colors, to become comfortable with the isolation and segregation of the races, on a visual, social, or economic level”(31). Delany blames social traditions, and material and economic conditions for supporting the system. And not actual individuals. Delany supports his argument by giving three examples of when he has experienced racism in science fiction. The issue of racism in science fiction is presented by Delany when he tells his readers of an encounter with Isaac Asimov, his convention book signing partner, and his habitual panel placement with a fellow writer.

Science fiction can be defined as stories of different possible futures in where technology, space travel and futuristic elements all play a large role. These stories are found to be captivating, but most of all eye opening on the possibilities for our future. Afrofuturism uses these elements to make more than a story. Afrofuturistic writers, all being black, write these stories from experience which make their underlying reason more powerful and real. Afrofuturistic works fall well beyond the category of Science fiction because they have a purpose in exposing the black “communities past [that] has been deliberately rubbed out” (Dery 180). These works do more than merely entertain, but rather, create sci-fi parallels for a communities lasting trauma while further depicting the

Since 1982, there have been 11,300 books challenged in the United States. As the number of challenged books continues to rise, society’s exposure to diversity in literature decreases. According to the American Library Association, 51% of the top ten challenged books between 2005 and 2014 featured “diverse content.” Diverse content is defined as works featuring either non-white, LGBT+, or disabled primary characters, or discussions of issues in relation to race, religion, LGBT+ matters, mental illness and/or disabilities, among many other defining characteristics. Censoring such books has the potential to fundamentally stunt the personal growth of society, though many may feel certain information and topics must be censored for the safety of

The classic Disney movies Peter Pan and Pocahontas have been staples in many American children’s lives. These seemingly harmless family-friendly films have taught many important life lessons and morals, however, the movies also tend to create racial stereotypes and insinuate the ideas of white settler innocence. The song “Savages” from Pocahontas and the song “What Makes the Red Man Red” from Peter Pan in particular portray these implications. Sherene Razack’s “When Place Becomes Race” explores the correlation and affect that race and space have on each other with in-depth analysis of what makes up each. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ““The Danger of a Single Story” explains how stereotypes are not only created by a story -which is not necessarily false- but also

The writing styles of Claudine Rankine and Colson Whitehead vary significantly, but both manage to address the issue of race in America in profound ways. In Citizen: An American Lyric, the former utilizes a combination of images and poetry to convey a sense of open-endedness, while the latter follows a traditional historical fiction narrative in his novel, The Underground Railroad. The books build on historical and modern events to evoke emotion and convey criticism. *Rankine uses an experimental style to allow introspection, and Whitehead’s traditional writing blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction.

Brown: The Last Discovery of America, written by Richard Rodriguez, tells the fascinating story of Rodriguez’s struggle to find an identity. It capitalizes on the idea and future of Brown as a whole. Brown is not race or blood, it’s culture, but also a place for people who have lost their culture. To help stimulate readers Rodriguez appeals to all types of rhetoric, but the predominant feature throughout the book is pathos. This appeal to emotions helps the reader to pity (confusing) not only Rodriguez, but the others affected as well. This strategy is vastly effective because Rodriguez utilizes pathos to create persuasive arguments which are made even more effective by his unique style of writing in short, choppy sentences and casual tone.

There are many people in our world today, that believe racism is a problem of the past, that segregation and inequality are expressions that are not relevant today. The cold heart felt reality of this statement is that racism, is even more alive in our world today, than ever before. Circumstances such as, Caucasians being paid more than African Americans for the same job and Caucasian police officers gunning down innocent African Americans and being acquitted for it, are just some examples of the racial tensions in our society today. The people that believe racism is no longer a problem in this world, are simply ignoring the recent and past tragedies of African Americans. The inequalities this minority group has endured, has caught the attention of certain groups of people, that are trying to bring change, by taking a stand for a solution. In this challenge, the media has been very effective, in not only bringing the problems to the surface but also in seeking to effect resolutions. Throughout our countries’ past, the media, and even more specifically, movies, have been a powerful tool in bringing light of many types of injustices brought onto minority groups. A prime example of a movie that presents some of these issues is “Remember the Titans”. Throughout this essay, I will be analyzing this film, identifying some of the aspects of the film’s form, content and symbolism, regarding the impact on American culture, that can be seen within it.

The strength of Ellison’s novel lies in the fact that it is not written merely as a black vs. white man’s story; rather it is concerned with the experiences of the average American in its entirety and misconceptions. Consequently, the use of a nameless narrator allows anyone of any cultural background to envision themselves in the experiences of the

Literature is a work of art that is constructed with the fundamental purpose of conveying meaning and messages to readers. Although the idea that is expressed is decided by the author, its underlying messages can be interpreted in various ways by different readers. Literature often explores the gap between reality and imagination. Such an examination can easily lead to a false sense of reality, which promotes the oversimplification of life at a great cost. By oversimplifying reality, people may turn a blind eye to issues that need to be addressed for the sake of social justice. Often times, facing reality is despised because it may create problems that individuals are unable to solve. This is important to note because literature has the

Yet, despite this struggle for ownership, the fit between Science Fiction and people-of-color appears to be an intuitive one. Mark Dery (“Black to the Future”) poignantly points out, effectively noting that African Americans are always already seen and constructed as Other/Alien (8) . Is that all that surprising? Not

Films do and have always reflected society because they show what's important to people. Films demonstrate fads and hot button issues. Film is not only a piece of art but also a tool of social reform as it expresses the feelings of humans and their idea of contemporary society. Films are the mirror that reflect the society. They are controlled by powerful forces that filter information to the public as well as reflect their fears. This has been held true in the film industry for many decades. For example, when society had a fear of widespread crime then there were many films that reflected the police catching the criminals. When society felt that the schools were not educating the children then there were films reflecting inspirational

Next to being neo-slave narratives, Kindred and Beloved, as well as Who Fears Death, are examples of the genre of Speculative Fiction. This type of literature features supernatural and/or futuristic elements. Is serves as an umbrella term and includes science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, supernatural fiction, horror, dystopia, utopia, (post-)apocalyptic and superhero elements, as well as their combinations (Jackson and Moody-Freeman, 127). Hence, “in Speculative Fiction the action of the story can take place in a culture that never existed, a world we know nothing of, or an earth that might have been or might be” (Shade, 2). In other words, speculative literature includes all texts that take place “in a universe slightly different from our own” (Wyatt, 1-2). Language is “not merely descriptive but also functions as a form of word building” (Burnett, 137), as neologisms can be both metaphorical and literal in this genre.

In order to avoid problems in their communities and being called out for being different, people tend to fall to propriety. This is evident throughout history as people follow the social norms established by an authority, a religion, or traditional beliefs. These powerful entities continue to dominate our American society today as many people continue to fear change and social repercussions due to their unique ideology about the world and its issues. However, throughout history, non-conformist people have challenged the social norms and the entities that establish them and continue to do so to this day through counter-culture movements such as the Civil Rights, the Gay Rights, and the Black Lives Matter movements. In American Literature, many authors such as Hans Christian Anderson and Harper Lee have stated their perspective about a myriad of topics related to our world. Anderson and Lee both state their views about the world in their novels by employing children as main characters that hold the world’s wisdom since children are the hope for a bright future and they are careless about social norms and conformity.

In “The Race for Theory”, Barbara Christian a black, woman author examines the shortcomings of past literary theories, those developed under a phallocentric regime, and attempts to structure a new pratical theory . The race for theory, in Christian’s words, is “a takeover in the literary world by Western philosophers from the old literary elite, the neutral humanists” (Christian 1859). Because of this race for theory, many black, female, and/or third world writers speak in a different language that is “opposed to [their] needs and orientation” in order to obtain academic hegemony (Christian 1860). However, in this case, hegemony might be far-fetched since the voices of “people of color, feminists, radical critics, creative writers” might not even be heard in the white-male dominated academic world (Christian 1860). The major-minor binary epitomizes this problem of a white-male dominated academic world. In this