ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Moreno, Micah. “Survival by any means: Race and gender, passing and performance in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and parable of the talents.” Human Contradictions in Octavia E. Butler’s Work, 22 Nov. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46625-1_11
This piece criticizes how most dystopian fiction uses metaphors and analogies to deal with race/gender and gender/racial inequalities and shows how Butler directly tackles these issues. Butler’s lack of metaphors allows her to explore/compare how it impacts the past, present, and future of both the audience and the main character(s).
- Clausen, Daniel D. “Cli-Fi Georgic and Grassroots Mutual Aid in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Western American Literature, vol. 56 no. 3, 2021, p. 269-286. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/wal.2021.0040.
Clausen describes what new aspects Parable of the Sower offers to the genre of dystopia fiction and how it differs from other novels in its genre. Mainly how Parable focuses on mutual community aid, agricultural economy, and information rather than the individualist mentality taken by other dystopian novel authors and their main characters.
- Lea, Susan G. “Seeing beyond sameness: Using the giver to challenge colorblind ideology.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 37, no. 1, 2006, pp. 51–67, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-005-9454-2.
Lea discusses how Lowry’s choice to depict the world of The Giver in black and white commentates on the actual harm colorblind ideology brings to people of color. In an effort to create sameness – which would supposedly create equality – the dominant force aka the Elders model the “perfect” human after themselves; cisgender, caucasian with Eurocentric features. They insist this “perfect person” doesn’t see race but in reality, it is erasing almost all aspects of people of color and implying that they are “wrong” for not complying with sameness.
- Arnone, Chris M. “Why Are Dystopian Books So White?” Book Riot, 6 July 2023, https://bookriot.com/why-are-dystopian-books-so-white/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2023.
This article discusses the phenomenon of dystopian fiction’s severe lack of non-white protagonists and how what is considered dystopian to white audiences is a constant reality for many people of color. It also talks about how – due to their white privilege – white audiences have the luxury of using these books as escapism or putting an emotional distance between them and the work, unlike people of color.
- Hintz, Carrie, et al. Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers. Routledge, 2015.
Hintz points out the implications given by dystopian fiction that don’t divulge into race. Most often it is implied that people of color don’t exist in the pursuit of equality and sameness and in The Giver’s case, perpetuates the stereotype that racial minorities want to be white. Both uphold white privilege in what is supposed to be a utopia for all.
Good collation of cites. The challenge is going to be how to make two very separate critical conversations come together. So you’ll have to devise a way to get the two halves of the room taking, so to speak. You might also look at Katopodis’s piece on Butler, since she also talks about how Butler’s books works in actual classrooms.