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Microbial Zoopoetics in Octavia Butler’s Clay’s Ark
- Author(s):
- Sophia Booth Magnone (see profile)
- Date:
- 2016
- Group(s):
- Speculative and Science Fiction
- Subject(s):
- Animal rights, Gay and lesbian studies, Queer theory, Literature and science
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- critical animal studies, Gender studies, microbiome, Octavia Butler, science fiction, LGBTQ Studies
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6VQ1H
- Abstract:
- This paper reads Octavia Butler’s 1984 novel Clay’s Ark as a speculative handbook for living collaboratively in a more-than-human world. Drawing on Aaron Moe’s theory of zoopoetics, as well as emerging research on the effects of the human microbiome on health, behavior, and personality, I consider how the novel’s “villain,” an infectious microbe, might be not just a germ but an author, writing difference into the text of the human species. Depicting this interspecies relationship as both troubling and productive, Butler suggests the urgent need for humans to construct responsible and mutually beneficial forms of collaboration with their nonhuman neighbors of all sorts.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 6 years ago
- License:
- Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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