Are Black Women the Future of Man? The Role of Black Women in Political and Cultural Transformation in Science Fiction from the US, UK, and Cameroon
Are Black Women the Future of Man? The Role of Black Women in Political and Cultural Transformation in Science Fiction from the US, UK, and Cameroon
Science fiction presents radically other socio-cultural contexts and bodily states of being as part of its generic horizon of expectations, yet visions of the future, and whom we imagine as agents of change in it, are circumscribed by past and present social history. This chapter examines the depictions of black femininity in the science fiction films Alien vs. Predator (dir. Paul W.S. Anderson, 2004), Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 2006), and Les Saignantes (dir. Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 2005) to determine whether science fiction is better able to accommodate a wider range of roles for black women than genres that rely more on cultural verisimilitude. The respective universal, global and national upheavals depicted in these films are a unique opportunity to recast black femininity in new terms, to consider the black female characters in their shifting relationships to transnational cultures, whiteness, and the concept of Other within the genre.
Keywords: black women, femininity, transnational cultures, Alien vs. Predator, Children of Men, Les Saignantes
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