Race in American Science Fiction

Blackness in a white genre

Noting that science fiction is characterized by an investment in the proliferation of racial difference, Isiah Lavender III argues that racial alterity is fundamental to the genre's narrative strategy. Race in American Science Fiction offers a systematic classification of ways that race appears and how it is silenced in science fiction, while developing a critical vocabulary designed to focus attention on often-overlooked racial implications. These focused readings of science fiction contextualize race within the genre's better-known master narratives and agendas. Authors discussed include Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and Ursula K. Le Guin, among many others.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Mapping the Blackground
1. Racing Science Fiction
2. Meta-slavery
3. Jim Crow Extrapolations
4. Ailments of Race
5. Ethnoscapes
6. Technologically Derived Ethnicities
Epilogue: Science Fictioning Race

Notes
Bibliography
Index