Identity and Language in the Writing of Octavia Butler

Biruni University | 1st International Congress on Teaching & Teacher Education, İstanbul, Türkiye, 11 - 12 Haziran 2021, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.63

Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
Cilt numarası: 1
Basıldığı Şehir: İstanbul
Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
Sayfa Sayıları: ss.63
İstanbul Gelişim Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Identity and Language in the Writing of Octavia Butler Tuğba Akman Kaplan1 While benefiting from Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theories of subject formation, and Frantz Fanon’s thoughts on double-voicedness and their connection to the individuals’ both material, imagined and social surroundings, this article demonstrates analyzes Octavia Butler’s Kindred along the lines of Afrofuturism. The main is on the discussion of the key aspects that constitutes Afrofuturism, including the depiction of the characters’ body and language in terms of alienation and activism. Frantz Fanon’s thoughts on double-voicedness will be incorporated with especially Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theories on the subject formation. The article also includes discussion on Lacan’s process of ego formation, the importance of surrounding communities, home, interracial relations, and fragmentation to analyze the protagonist’s transition. In the Afrofuturistic scope, the article highlights the need to step out of the Law of the father and accept the fragmented-self in order to break free from the personal and societal impositions that colonize the self and the mind. Keywords: Jacques Lacan, Frantz Fanon, Octavia Butler, Kindred, Afrofuturism, psychoanalytic theory, double-voicedness