Reading Time Travel in Octavia E. Butler’s "Kindred" as Sankofa

Authors

  • Alena Cicholewski Carl-von-Ossietzky-Universitaet Oldenburg

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.273

Keywords:

African American literature, neo-slave narratives, Sankofa, science fiction, time travel

Abstract

This article shows how the Akan concept of Sankofa“ as healing through returning to the past is engaged in Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred“. Based on selected close readings, I will discuss whether the science fiction element of time travel in the novel can be read as a literal representation of Sankofa“.

Author Biography

Alena Cicholewski, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Universitaet Oldenburg

Alena Cicholewski née Ruether studied English and economics at Carl-von-Ossietzky-Universitaet Oldenburg and Newcastle University (UK). She is currently working on her Ph.D. project, tentatively titled “Cultural Memory, Time Travel, and Alternate History: Reading Neo-Slave Narratives as Science Fiction” at Carl-von-Ossietzky-Universitaet. In her dissertation, she analyzes how the incorporation of science fiction elements affects the ways in which neo-slave narratives engage with the contested space of (American) cultural memory.

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Published

2017-07-06

How to Cite

Cicholewski, Alena. “Reading Time Travel in Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Kindred’ As Sankofa”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, July 2017, doi:10.5283/copas.273.

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.