Hybrid Bodies and Hybrid Identities in the Fiction of Octavia Butler

• Thesis title in Czech: Hybridní těla a hybridní identity v dílech Octavie Butlerové
• Thesis title in English: Hybrid Bodies and Hybrid Identities in the Fiction of Octavia Butler
• Key words: Octavia Butler, hybridita, postkoloniální studia, identita kyborga
• English key words: Octavia Butler, hybridity, postcolonial studies, cyborg identity
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2013/2014
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Pavla Veselá, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 26.05.2014
• Date of assignment: 26.05.2014
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 28.05.2014
• Date and time of defence: 24.05.2016 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 04.05.2016
• Date of proceeded defence: 24.05.2016
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: prof. PhDr. Martin Procházka, CSc.

Guidelines

The MA thesis will focus on Butler’s characters of mixed origin – offspring of two distinct species who share traits from both of them or people whose existence is a result of a mutation or genetic experiments. These individuals occupy a liminal space between species, races, cultures and even genders; they are neither/nor as well as both/and. Thus, they are related to the recent postcolonial debates concerning diaspora, hybridity and multicultural identity. There are many theories and concepts connected with hybridity which may be applied in the discussion of these characters. This study will work, for example, with Homi Bhabha’s “third space” and Donna Haraway’s“cyborg identity.”
The thesis will deal with Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, Patternist series and her last novel, Fledgling. One of themain objectives is to compare the above mentioned characters and to examine how their biological and cultural hybridity influences their conception of identity and their interactions with others. Furthermore, the study will point out the ambivalence and fluidity associated with these individuals and it will discuss the ways in which their status challenges traditional notions of gender, race, sexuality and humanity.It will also show that although one may trace several similarities in the stories of Butler’s “in-between” characters, Butler does not present the experiences of hybridity as universal, but as diverse.

References

Primary Sources
Butler, Octavia E. Fledgling. London: Headline, 2014.
Butler, Octavia E. Lilith’s Brood: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. New York: Open Road, 2012.
Butler, Octavia E. Seed to Harvest. New York: Hachette, 2007.

Secondary Sources
Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture.London: Routledge, 1994.
Hampton, Gregory Jerome. Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler: Slaves, Aliens, and Vampires. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010.
Haraway, Donna. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Second ed. London: Free Association Books Ltd, 1991.
Jones, Cassandra L. Futurebodies: Octavia Butler as Post-colonial Cyborg Theorist. Bowling Green University, 2013.
Kraidy, Marwan M. Hybridity, or the Cultural Logic of Globalization. New Delhi: Temple University Press, 2005.
Melzer, Patricia. Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
Miller, Jim. “Post-Apocalyptic Hoping: Octavia Butler’s Dystopian/Utopian Vision.” Science Fiction Studies. Vol. 25 (1998): 336-360.
Peppers, Cathy. “Dialogic Origins and Alien Identity in Butler’s Xenogenesis.”Science-Fiction Studies 22 (1995): 47-62.
Prabhu, Anjali. Hybridity: Limits, Transformations, Prospects. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
Strong, Mellisa J. “The Limits of Newness: Hybridity in Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling.”Femspec 11.1 (2010): 27-36.
Tucker, Jeffrey. “The Human Contradiction: Identity and/as Essence in Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy,” The Yearbook of English Studies37.2, Science Fiction (2007): 164-181.
Young, Robert J.C. Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race. London: Routledge, 2005.