Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Novel and Politics
- The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Novel and Politics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Ideologies and Movements
- Part II The Politics of Genre and Form
- Part III Case Studies
- Chapter 15 Herland (1915): Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Chapter 16 It Can’t Happen Here (1935): Sinclair Lewis
- Chapter 17 All the King’s Men (1946): Robert Penn Warren
- Chapter 18 Invisible Man (1952): Ralph Ellison
- Chapter 19 The Left Hand of Darkness (1969): Ursula K. Le Guin
- Chapter 20 If Beale Street Could Talk (1974): James Baldwin
- Chapter 21 The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975): Edward Abbey
- Chapter 22 Ceremony (1977): Leslie Marmon Silko
- Chapter 23 Parable Series (1993, 1998): Octavia E. Butler
- Chapter 24 The Underground Railroad (2016): Colson Whitehead
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Chapter 23 - Parable Series (1993, 1998): Octavia E. Butler
from Part III - Case Studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Novel and Politics
- The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Novel and Politics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Ideologies and Movements
- Part II The Politics of Genre and Form
- Part III Case Studies
- Chapter 15 Herland (1915): Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Chapter 16 It Can’t Happen Here (1935): Sinclair Lewis
- Chapter 17 All the King’s Men (1946): Robert Penn Warren
- Chapter 18 Invisible Man (1952): Ralph Ellison
- Chapter 19 The Left Hand of Darkness (1969): Ursula K. Le Guin
- Chapter 20 If Beale Street Could Talk (1974): James Baldwin
- Chapter 21 The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975): Edward Abbey
- Chapter 22 Ceremony (1977): Leslie Marmon Silko
- Chapter 23 Parable Series (1993, 1998): Octavia E. Butler
- Chapter 24 The Underground Railroad (2016): Colson Whitehead
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
Examining Octavia E. Butler’s post-apocalyptic Parable series (Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents), this chapter argues that Butler uses an Afrofuturist aesthetic to create an imagined future that is not simply a description of American life, but a possible direction for rethinking who we are and how we live. It explores the prescient politics of Butler’s science fiction by showing how the political and economic systems in which the characters move both deeply impact how they live and are also strikingly absent. At its most basic political level, the Parable series offers a dystopian warning about possible futures and about the present. Responding to the neoliberal undermining of the values of public services under Reagan and beyond, the novels warn about both power-seekers filling political vacuums and our own willingness to ignore the consequences. The chapter ends with an examination of the benefits and drawbacks of Earthseed, the protagonist’s fictional religion, that prompts readers to reconsider the value of community itself, one dedicated to new ways of living that will challenge people to grow in new ways.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023