Abstract
In Playing in the Dark (1992), Toni Morrison examines the ‘Africanist’ presence, arguing that the crafting of Blackness by white authors directly influenced “the architecture of a new white man” in opposition to the Africanist presence (Morrison 17). Morrison’s argument regarding the ‘Africanist’ presence allows for analysis of the allegory for the alien species in 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 conventions of the alien invasion genre originated by H.G. Wells in The War of the Worlds (1895). One of the most popular elements includes a white protagonist opposing the alien. This convention has been interpreted through Edward Said’s theory Orientalism, resulting in the Oankali being seen as an allegory for colonialism. However, the inclusion of BIPOC characters in Lilith’s Brood complicates this interpretation and expands the conversation concerning the allegory of the alien and the morality of hierarchical systems, specifically gender. The alteration to the genre furthers the discussion regarding the disruption to hierarchical systems of gender discussed in Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble. The scenes altering genre conventions provide context to the alien species, the Oankali, and change how we perceive them beyond the allegory of a colonizing species. Therefore, I analyze the dialogue within Lilith’s Brood to explore how Octavia E. Butler is reforming the alien invasion genre by rejecting traditional genre conventions and how this rejection complicates the allegory of the Oankali and gender dynamics.