Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Black speculative fiction is informed by indigenous and transnational folklore. The stories within the genre are perceived as testimonial based on the ability to convey a deep connection to cultural ideologies. Some of the prominent Black women writers who write in speculative fiction genre, Octavia Butler and Erna Brodber, critically address the lack of people of color in speculative text by creating Black protagonist that speak cultural truths and re-examine traditional historical ideologies. Sheroes likes Butler’s Dana in the text Kindred and Brodber’s Ella in the text Louisiana, have contributed to the idea of strong women that are rooted in their culture and who are unafraid to challenge systematic and social constructs; for these women those ideas are centered around Black women as leaders, black women as intellectuals, and Black women who embrace their difference. This sort of dialectical shift, from Black women as servants to leader, causes a shift in the exclusive nature of mainstream speculative fiction. The works of Butler and Brodber create a space for black speculative fiction to transform the ideas of perceived (high or exclusive) art by opening and reviewing Black spaces as substantive. This paper explores the Black cultural voice in speculative fiction and illustrates how black sheroes can and do transform traditional ways of thinking about black women.