The Xenogenesis Trilogy: The Utopian Writing of Octavia E. Butler

• Název práce v češtině: Trilogie Xenogenesis: Utopické dílo Octavie E. Butler
• Název v anglickém jazyce: The Xenogenesis Trilogy: The Utopian Writing of Octavia E. Butler
• Klíčová slova: Octavia E. Butler|utopie|dystopie|naděje|změna|trilogie Xenogenesis|Lilith‘s Brood
• Klíčová slova anglicky: Octavia E. Butler|utopia|dystopia|hope|change|Xenogenesis trilogy|Lilith’s Brood
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2020/2021
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Mgr. Pavla Veselá, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 25.02.2021
• Datum zadání: 25.02.2021
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 26.02.2021
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 07.02.2024 00:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 10.01.2024
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 07.02.2024
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: prof. PhDr. Martin Procházka, CSc.

Zásady pro vypracování

This thesis will look through the lens of the three main characters of Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy (otherwise known as Lilith’s Brood), Lilith, Akin, and Jodahs, and analyze each book in the trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago) in order to trace dystopian and utopian elements in Butler’s writing. It will look at different ideas of what utopia and the utopian is, and through this, explore the idea that it is the hope incited by the idea of change that constitutes Butler’s utopian writing. This change does not try to achieve some ideological goal, but instead is one that is playful, limitless and allows for constant transformation. The thesis will explore the idea that even though Butler herself was skeptical towards the concept of utopia, her work is utopian because of its constant striving towards a better future through the creation of worlds that inspire the hope for change.

Seznam odborné literatury

Curtis, Claire P. “Disability, Norms, and Eugenics in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 9, no.1 (2015): 19-33.
Dowdall, Lisa. “Treasured Strangers: Race, Biopolitics, and the Human in Octavia E.Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy.” Science Fiction Studies 44, no.3 (2017): 506-525.
Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings. Edited by Rob Latham. 306-329. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
James, Edward. “Utopias and anti-utopias.” In The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. Edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn. 219-229. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Jameson, Fredric. “Progress versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future?” In Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings. Edited by Rob Latham. 211-224. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Jesser, Nancy. “Blood, Genes, and Gender in Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Dawn.” Extrapolation 43, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 36-61.
Johns, Adam, J. “Becoming Medusa: Octavia Butler’s Lilith's Brood and Sociobiology.” Science Fiction Studies 37, no.3 (2010): 382-401.
Johns, Adam. “‘The Time Had Come for Us to Be Born’: Octavia Butler’s Darwinian Apocalypse.” Extrapolation 51, no.3 (2010): 395-343.
Kenan, Randall. “An Interview with Octavia E. Butler.” Callaloo 14, no.2 (Spring 1991): 495-504.
Miller, Jim. “Post-Apocalyptic Hoping: Octavia Butler’s Dystopian/Utopian Vision.” Science Fiction Studies 25, no. 2 (July 1998): 336-60.
Moylan, Tom. Demand the Impossible, Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination. Bern: Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, 2014.
Moylan, Tom. “The Necessity of Hope in Dystopian Times: A Critical Reflection.” Utopian Studies 31, no. 1 (2020): 164-193.
Moylan, Tom. “Transgressive, Totalizing, Transformative: Utopia’s Utopian Surplus.” Utopian Studies 29, no. 3 (2018): 309-324.
Nanda, Aparajita. “Power, Politics, and Domestic Desire in Octavia Butler’s Lilith's Brood." Callaloo 36, no. 3 (Summer 2013): 773-788.
Peppers, Cathy. “Dialogic Origins and Alien Identities in Butler’s Xenogenesis.” Science Fiction Studies 22, no. 1 (March 1995): 47-62.
Roberts, Richard H. “Review Article, An Introductory Reading of Ernst Bloch’s The Principle of Hope.” Journal of Literature & Theology 1, no. 1 (March 1987): 89-112.
Rowell, Charles H. Rowell and Octavia E. Butler. “An Interview with Octavia E. Butler.” Callaloo 20, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 47-66.
Tucker, Jeffrey A. “‘The Human Contradiction’: Identity and/as Essence in Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy.” The Yearbook of English Studies 37, no. 2 (2007): 164-181.
Vieira, Fátima. “The Concept of Utopia.” In The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature. Edited by Gregory Claeys. 3-27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Walker, Tara. “Destabilizing Order, Challenging History: Octavia Butler, Deleuze and Guattari, and Affective Beginnings.” Extrapolation 46, no.1 (Spring 2005): 103-119.
Warfield, Angela. “Reassessing the Utopian Novel: Octavia Butler, Jacques Derrida, and the Impossible Future of Utopia.” Obsidian III 6.2/7.1 (2005-2006): 61–71.
Zaki, Hoda M. “Utopia, Dystopia, and Ideology in the Science Fiction of Octavia Butler.” Science Fiction Studies 17, no. 2 (July 1990): 239-51.