Research Question: How does Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower depict the intersection of religion, survival, and community in a dystopian future as a utopian vision?  

                                               Bibliography 

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower: The New York Times Bestseller. Hachette UK,       2014.

Kubiak, Samantha. “Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower: Utopia as a Mindset        Within Dystopia.” The Digital Literature Review, 11 Dec. 2018, blogs.bsu.edu/dlr/2018/12/11/octavia-butlers-parable-of-the-sower-utopia-mindset-within-dystopia.

Miller, Jim. “Post-Apocalyptic Hoping: Octavia Butler’s Dystopian/Utopian Vision.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, 1998, pp. 336–60. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240705. Accessed 16 Nov. 2023.

Phillips, Jerry. “The Intuition of the Future: Utopia and Catastrophe in Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower.’” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, vol. 35, no. 2/3, 2002, pp. 299–311. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1346188. Accessed 16 Nov. 2023.

Post, Kathryn. “Lending Hope in a Pandemic Year, Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’ Makes a Comeback.” Religion News Service, 25 Sept. 2020, religionnews.com/2020/09/25/restoring-faith-in-a-dystopic-2020-octavia-butlers-parable-of-the-sower-makes-a-comeback.

STILLMAN, PETER G. “Dystopian Critiques, Utopian Possibilities, and Human Purposes in Octavia Butler’s Parables.” Utopian Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, 2003, pp. 15–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20718544. Accessed 16 Nov. 2023.

          My original question was “How does Butler’s use of speculative fiction in Parable of the Sower serve as a commentary on the potential consequences of climate change and the importance of taking action to mitigate its effects?” However, the question was too broad, and instead of trying to fix it, I asked myself if that was a topic I was looking forward to discussing. I came up with 4 other research questions but they were just missing something. Then I remembered my old post where I explained how Butler’s novel not only presents a problem but also a solution through Lauren. Butler’s novel is much more than just a futuristic apocalyptic vision; it’s a guide. Hence I came up with the question “How does Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower depict the intersection of religion, survival, and community in a dystopian future as a utopian vision? “  Using all the information I had, I began researching sources that corroborated my idea; sources that explained religion, survival, and community(mutual aid).  It was hard to find the sources because most of them only focused on the negative aspects of the issue and the dystopian vision. I searched most of the databases we talked about in our library session, but some articles weren’t accessible. I found 5 sources that I am hoping to see how they will help me develop my essay.

Sukanya Mondal, and Rashmi Gaur. “In Whose Voice Should a Subaltern Speak?: Reading the Problem of Agency in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide.” Transnational Literature, vol. 9, no. 1, 2016.

Jones, Brandon. “A Postcolonial Utopia for the Anthropocene: Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and Climate-Induced Migration.” Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 64, no. 4, 2018, pp. 639–58, https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2018.0047.

White, Laura A. “Novel Vision: Seeing the Sunderbans through Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Hungry Tide.’” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol. 20, no. 3, 2013, pp. 513–31, https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/ist051.

Dhar, Tej N. “Consciousness-Raising in Amitav Ghosh’s Ecocritical Novel The Hungry Tide.” Crossings, vol. 11, no. 2, 2020, pp. 43–56, https://doi.org/10.59817/cjes.v11i.45.

De Capitani, Lucio. “Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter.” Il Tolomeo (Online), vol. 18, no. 1, 2016, https://doi.org/10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-18

The relationship that I wanted to focus on within my research paper was the one between Fokker and Kanai, as one individual represents better the refugee and native perspective, while another is of a more european representation ie. the colonizer. I think that there’s also something interesting that the novel does not bring in necessarily a European into the novel. I think there’s points there about how imperialism and its modes of knowing are ones that recreate themselves and become the one true kind of valuable and real way. Be it a way of living, or a way of knowing. To this end the research that centers on the text isn’t really useful so I looked for more texts that talked about the ways that Fokir functions and represents the colonized parties’ experience, even after the colonizer has moved on. I was also looking for texts that discussed Kanai and the ways he himself represents a kind of converted native, someone who is fully involved in this post-colonial world. I think the end result or goal is going to be finding pieces that discuss what postcolonial knowing and being really is, and how it lives on. 

Courtney G. Flint a, et al. “Exploring Empirical Typologies of Human–Nature Relationships and Linkages to the Ecosystem Services Concept.” Landscape and Urban Planning, Elsevier, 2 Oct. 2013, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204613001813?casa_token=De75LeOxxGAAAAAA%3AoTTV7RfeiWdwOz6Ct5hp_cZU7TyfwnoFpt–kgHuUAYQS1MS3aTzJ89VpfG3ugYDx2kfb3HaWA.

Head, Lesley. “More than Human, More than Nature.” Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene: Re-Conceptualising Human-Nature Relations, Routledge, Imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, London, 2018.

Research Question:

How does Parable of the Sower’s representation of the 2020s portray a future based off of trends of the average American life in the 1990s?

Research Process:

1. I first had to research about the United States in the 1990s as a whole and then went on to research about California in the 1990s, as that was where the setting of the book is.
2. After that, I used Google Scholar, OneSearch and JStor to look for sources. While doing this I found that a good number of these sources would be shown on each website which did not help in finding new sources. Keywords I used were: 1990s, 20th century, 21st century, change, future, social inequality, crime, illiteracy, drugs, addiction, and climate change.

Sources:

Research Question:

How do Lauren’s hyperempathy and Earthseed explore themes of community? Specifically, how does Lauren’s hyperempathy help her form a community based on shared values and mutual aid? How does Lauren’s democratic pluralism through Earthseed differ from other modes of organization in the novel such as Reverend Olamina’s model in Robledo before the disaster (Robeldo’s destruction), the hordes of pyro addicts, and Olivar?

Research Process:

1. Identify Keywords: hyperempathy, Earthseed, Mutual Aid, Pyro addicts/Paints/”Ro” Addicts, Anarchy, Community, Robledo, Olivar
2. Before researching using specific keywords such as Robledo and Olivar, I first did a more general search about communities in Parable of the Sower. By doing this, I was able to see how different writers refer to different organizations. For example, when I read some sources, I noted that the pyro addicts are referred to as “paints” because of their painted faces. This allowed me to find more sources about the Pyro addicts since I was able to identify another keyword to use. Also, I found that the pyro addicts could be associated with the word “anarchy” since there are no laws to follow outside of the walled community. Overall, doing a more general search, helped me find more sources easier since it allowed me to find more keywords to use while researching.

**Most of my research was done with Google Scholar. I sorted the sources by date (2013-2023)**

Sources:

• Blazan, Sladja. “ ‘Something Beyond Pain’: Race, Gender, and Hyperempathy in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Gender Forum, 2022, pp. 34-52, http://genderforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Final_Complete-_Issue82.pdf#page=37
• Newbie, Billie Rose. “The Ever-Present Dystopia, the Non-Present Utopia, and the Thirdspace: The Role of Contrasting Coteries in 20th-Century Dystopian Literature and Parable of the Sower.” Scholar Works, 23 April 2021, pp. 1-24, https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=honors_theses
• Milanese, Elena. “ ‘Home as it was or home as it should have been’: Constitutional Rights in Butler’s not so Fictional World.” Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, 28 October 2019, pp. 1-88, http://dspace.unive.it/bitstream/handle/10579/15851/854274-1230211.pdf?sequence=2
• Reid-X, Mercedes Alayna. “Octavia E. Butler’s Earthseed and the God of Change.” Virtual Commons, 18 August 2022, pp. 1-28, https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1563&context=honors_proj 
• Clausen, Daniel D. “Cli-Fi Georgic and Grassroots Mutual Aid in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Western American Literature, 2021, pp. 269–286, https://doi.org/10.1353/wal.2021.0040 
• James, Lisa. “ ‘To shape God, Shape Self’: The Political Manipulation of the Human Body and Reclamation of Space in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Malmö University, 2018, pp. 1-39, https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1483641/FULLTEXT01.pdf 

**I still plan on looking for more potential sources by looking for more keywords I can use. I am aiming to have at least 8 sources**