Abstract
In Playing in the Dark (1992), Toni Morrison examines the ‘Africanist’ presence, arguing that the crafting of Blackness by white authors, such as Edgar Allan Poe, influenced “the architecture of a new white man” in opposition with the Africanist presence (Morrison 17). Morrison’s argument regarding the ‘Africanist’ presence allows for the analysis of Octavia E. Butler’s Lilith’s Brood (2000), first published as Dawn (1987), Adulthood Rites (1988), and Imago (1989). In this collection of novels, Octavia E. Butler alters familiar elements of the alien invasion genre originated by H.G. Wells in 1895. These elements include the white protagonist in juxtaposition of the alien perceptive as the racially or political Other and the undertones of the morality regarding hierarchal systems within society, depicted in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (2009) and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (1985). The inclusion of BIPOC protagonists alter the conversation concerning the morality of hierarchical systems, specifically gender, and the disruption to the alien perceived as the racial or political Other. The alteration to the genre furthers the discussion regarding the disruption to hierarchical systems of gender discussed in Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble. I will argue how Octavia E. Butler is reforming the alien invasion genre through the analysis of the dialogue within Lilith’s Brood reflecting the distancing of the ‘Africanist’ presence from the science fiction genre, thus generating conversation regarding the human reaction to the dismantling of human society and reversion to hierarchical systems that further the reduction of human morality.