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In Speculative Time: Race and The Literature of Uncertain Futures Main Menu Zombifying the "Canon" From Margin to Contagion Opacity Alternative Histories World Building Course Information About

Introduction

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Derick Bell’s short story, “The Space Traders” introduces a terrifying premise: What would the U.S. do when presented with the option of social and economic advancement in exchange for its black population? The story depicts an otherworldly scenario where aliens descend upon the Earth and present this very option. While its extraterrestrial plotline may present a hypothetical circumstance, the power of its controversial premise and implications behind the U.S.’ final decision speaks to both the real and ideological state of racial relations in the U.S.

While “The Space Traders” was written in 1992, its disconcerting message about U.S. racism, particularly anti-blackness, is still all too resonant with present day anxieties about race and the limits of white liberal politics. As a work of speculative fiction, it deploys conventions of the genre to illuminate the harsh reality of black experiences in the U.S. and challenges the notion that race belongs in the past. As “The Space Traders” shows, racism very much moves through time and takes on different forms depending on shifting contexts. It also demonstrates the speculative genre’s capacity to capture these iterations of racism as they change over time and real and imagined settings.

The speculative genre has always been considered a space where social and political issues can be contended with through world building, imagination of alternate histories or realities, creation or vanquishing of monsters, communing with ghosts, among other strategies. Its deviation from literal reality can offer social and political critique through a refracted lens. While the conventions of the genre are not exempt from reifying the very systems that they critique, its elements can certainly be charged with the task of exploring race in all its critical and creative capacities.

The following considers the work of critical race and creative writing pedagogy through the speculative genre. Specifically, it considers what values, themes, and objectives inspired through speculative work could underscore a creative and critical writing workshop that centers race in its discussion. Oftentimes race and speculative genre work are regarded as peripheral (if not incidental) to the writing workshop. In response, this project aims to ask the following:

What can speculative writing do for poetry, fiction and other hybrid genre work in its exploration of race?
How can the study and creation of speculative literature work towards an anti-racist objective?
What does working in the speculative vein teach us about the genre’s presumptions and its limits?
How can we better utilize a speculative lens in the writing workshop setting? What can it inform us about critical and creative writing pedagogy?

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IN SPECULATIVE TIME: RACE AND THE LITERATURE OF UNCERTAIN FUTURES Muriel Leung
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1. Introduction
Introduction Muriel Leung
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Introduction Muriel Leung
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