Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
Future Machines: Assembling Transformation through Afrofuturist Imaginaries1182 views
Author
Perla, James, English - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia
Advisors
Hamilton, Njelle, Department of English, University of Virginia
Abstract
My project investigates Afrofuturism or black science fiction. It interrogates the central tension within Afrofuturism between cultural specificity and post-human futurity to show how the aesthetic strategies of bricolage, future-oriented ontologies, and prophetic narratives enable Afrofuturist practitioners to master (read: hack) the technologies of race, history, time, and creative representation. As such, Afrofuturist artists assemble transformation machines, new worlds, texts, and scripts that attend to the historical experiences of people of color only insofar as they provide the keys for the reformulation of the categories that have historically bound them. My thesis focuses primarily on two works: The Last Angel of History a 1996 film from the Black Audio Film Collective and Parable of the Sower written in 1993 by Octavia E. Butler.
Degree
MA (Master of Arts)
Language
English
Rights
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
Perla, James. Future Machines: Assembling Transformation through Afrofuturist Imaginaries. University of Virginia, English - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, MA (Master of Arts), 2016-04-29, https://doi.org/10.18130/V3496X.