Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred

The present study adopts a critical posthuman perspective to investigate how Octavia Butler’s Kindred aims to reconstruct and later dismantle binary oppositions that have been part and parcel of oppressive systems of power such as slavery. Opening his essay with a brief theoretical outline of post...

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Main Author: Czerniakowski, Maciej
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16555/1/44040-151990-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16555/
https://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1379
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spelling my-ukm.journal.165552021-05-10T04:25:03Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16555/ Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred Czerniakowski, Maciej The present study adopts a critical posthuman perspective to investigate how Octavia Butler’s Kindred aims to reconstruct and later dismantle binary oppositions that have been part and parcel of oppressive systems of power such as slavery. Opening his essay with a brief theoretical outline of posthumanism and transhumanism, the author then strives to elaborate on the conceptual framework of the essay and the relevance of the discussion of slavery. Through the main part of the essay, the author focuses on Butler’s primary objective, which is to problematise the stereotypical relationship between the enslaved and the enslaver, united by fear and rape, to demonstrate that slavery—in a sense—oppressed them both. The author contends that Butler constructs various borderlands founded on binary oppositions to reveal the arbitrariness of the latter so that a posthuman relational cyborg body can emerge. As the author concludes, this symbiotic body becomes a site of transgression in which all boundaries eventually topple over. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16555/1/44040-151990-1-PB.pdf Czerniakowski, Maciej (2021) Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 27 (1). pp. 129-141. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1379
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description The present study adopts a critical posthuman perspective to investigate how Octavia Butler’s Kindred aims to reconstruct and later dismantle binary oppositions that have been part and parcel of oppressive systems of power such as slavery. Opening his essay with a brief theoretical outline of posthumanism and transhumanism, the author then strives to elaborate on the conceptual framework of the essay and the relevance of the discussion of slavery. Through the main part of the essay, the author focuses on Butler’s primary objective, which is to problematise the stereotypical relationship between the enslaved and the enslaver, united by fear and rape, to demonstrate that slavery—in a sense—oppressed them both. The author contends that Butler constructs various borderlands founded on binary oppositions to reveal the arbitrariness of the latter so that a posthuman relational cyborg body can emerge. As the author concludes, this symbiotic body becomes a site of transgression in which all boundaries eventually topple over.
format Article
author Czerniakowski, Maciej
spellingShingle Czerniakowski, Maciej
Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred
author_facet Czerniakowski, Maciej
author_sort Czerniakowski, Maciej
title Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred
title_short Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred
title_full Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred
title_fullStr Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred
title_full_unstemmed Posthuman transgression of boundaries in Octavia Butler’s Kindred
title_sort posthuman transgression of boundaries in octavia butler’s kindred
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2021
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16555/1/44040-151990-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16555/
https://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1379
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