Reading the Great Book: West African cosmopolitanism in Butler and Okorafor

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

Abstract

This paper explores the influence of West African literary culture on the work of Octavia Butler and Nnedi Okorafor, with particular attention to Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy (1987-1989) and Okorafor’s Who Fears Death (2010). These works honour the cultural and literary heritage of West Africa, specifically through the Yoruba tradition, and with particular interest in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952). In contrast with the way that European philosophy, historiography and science fiction have tended to characterise Africa as lacking both a precolonial history and a capacity for forging futures that don’t depend on colonial and neo-colonial intervention and ‘development’, Butler and Okorafor create complex human and non-human futures that recognise the continent’s active contribution to global history, its cosmopolitanism, and its richness as a site of cultural exchange. In so doing, I argue, they transform the literary contexts in which they labour, for both African and non-African writers and readers.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 8 Dec 2024
EventWomen in the Black Fantastic: Science Fiction Foundation conference 2024 - On-line conference
Duration: 7 Dec 20248 Dec 2024
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zznsm3rI6_gSsBnJR1c3ZFTVw_KTScUZ/edit

Conference

ConferenceWomen in the Black Fantastic
Period7/12/248/12/24
Internet address

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