The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler

(Paperback)

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Octavia E. Butler is widely recognized today as one of the most important figures in contemporary science fiction. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars and covering Butlers complete works from the bestselling novel Kindred, to her short stories and major novel sequences Patternmaster, Xenogenesis and The Parables, this is the most comprehensive Companion to Butler scholarship available today. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler covers the full range of contemporary scholarly themes and approaches to the authors work, including: Cyborgs and the posthuman Race and African American history Afrofuturism Gender and sexuality New perspectives from Religious Studies, the Environmental Humanities and Disability Studies New discoveries from the Butler archives at the Huntington Library The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of works by Butler and secondary scholarship on her work as well as an afterword by the novelist Tananarive Due.

Reviews

The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butleris compelling overview of the work of this vital writer. Equally attentive to her contributions to speculative fiction, African American studies, and theoretical work concerns with social justice, the essays collected here attest to Butlers complexity and range. Bookended by two personal reflections from Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due, important authors themselves, it further provides a glimpse of the thoughtful person behind the powerful fiction. The Bloomsbury Handbookoffers new insights into Butlers most discussed fiction, such as her Xenogenesis trilogy and Parablesnovels, and brings needed critical attention to the entire body of her work, including the out-of-print novel Survivor and unpublished material now available in archival papers. An indispensable overview of Butlers status as one of the most important novelists of her era, this Handbookbrings together essays from an impressive range of disciplinary frameworksliterature, neuroscience, biopolitics, disability studies, posthumanist theory, fan studies, postcolonial theory, and visual arts. The volume includes reflections on the challenges and promises of teaching Butlers fiction in undergraduate classrooms and ones that engage how Butlers ideas have become foundational for ongoing work in antiracist activism. This fascinating collection makes clear that Butler speaks both to her own time and to ours. In both Butlers fiction and in the scholarship assembled her, hope shines through even as the works clear-sightedly address the darkness of our world. * Sherryl Vint, Director of the Speculative Fictions and Cultures of Science program, University of California, Riverside, USA *
This volume marks a significant contribution to the scholarship on Octavia E. Butler. The editors have assembled and expertly curated articles on Butlers work, ranging from personal recollections by fellow writers and themes which occupied Butlers thinking, to her theorizing on colonialism, post humanism, and the meanings of consent under conditions of unequal distribution of power. By situating Butlers appeal and significance to new movements for racial and gender equality, new interpretations of Butlers work are brought to light demonstrating Butlers capacity to shed light on the human condition. This volume forms a rich interpretative and interdisciplinary tapestry which will provoke and inspire future research on one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. * Hoda Zaki, Professor of Political Science, Hood College, USA *
The impressively interdisciplinary scope of the collectionwhich includes the work of scholars of science fiction, fan studies, postcolonial theory, and Black studies, among many other fieldsalong with its focus on the work of emerging scholars makes this an exciting contribution to the critical conversation surrounding Butlers writing. * Modern Language Review *

Author Bio

Gregory J. Hampton is Professor of African-American Literature at Howard University, USA. He is the author of Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler (2010) and Imagining Slaves and Robots in Literature, Film and Popular Culture (2015). Kendra R. Parker, author of She Bites Back: Black Female Vampires in African American Womens Novels, 1977-2011 (2018), is an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Literature at Georgia Southern University.