Biofictions
Race, Genetics and the Contemporary Novel
Published on 20. February 2020
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-350-09983-8 (ISBN)
Description
This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.
Shortlisted for the ESSE 2022 Book Awards
Winner of the 2020 British Society for Literature and Science book prize.
In this important interdisciplinary, open access study, Josie Gill explores how the contemporary novel has drawn upon, and intervened in, debates about race in late 20th and 21st century genetic science. Reading works by leading contemporary writers including Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, Octavia Butler and Colson Whitehead, Biofictions demonstrates how ideas of race are produced at the intersection of science and fiction, which together create the stories about identity, racism, ancestry and kinship which characterize our understanding of race today. By highlighting the role of narrative in the formation of racial ideas in science, this book calls into question the apparent anti-racism of contemporary genetics, which functions narratively, rather than factually or objectively, within the racialized contexts in which it is embedded. In so doing, Biofictions compels us to rethink the long-asked question of whether race is a biological fact or a fiction, calling instead for a new understanding of the relationship between race, science and fiction.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched
Shortlisted for the ESSE 2022 Book Awards
Winner of the 2020 British Society for Literature and Science book prize.
In this important interdisciplinary, open access study, Josie Gill explores how the contemporary novel has drawn upon, and intervened in, debates about race in late 20th and 21st century genetic science. Reading works by leading contemporary writers including Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, Octavia Butler and Colson Whitehead, Biofictions demonstrates how ideas of race are produced at the intersection of science and fiction, which together create the stories about identity, racism, ancestry and kinship which characterize our understanding of race today. By highlighting the role of narrative in the formation of racial ideas in science, this book calls into question the apparent anti-racism of contemporary genetics, which functions narratively, rather than factually or objectively, within the racialized contexts in which it is embedded. In so doing, Biofictions compels us to rethink the long-asked question of whether race is a biological fact or a fiction, calling instead for a new understanding of the relationship between race, science and fiction.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched
Reviews / Votes
Biofictions makes an overwhelming case that the science of genetics and its ongoing conceptualization of race have been heavily shaped by fictional visions. Gill's book makes clear literature's inextricability from genetic biology's racial significance, and as a result, will likely strengthen its readers' antiracist resolve. That is an interdisciplinary vision that should be welcome on any campus tour. * Science Fiction Studies * In Biofictions, Josie Gill compellingly demonstrates the importance of works of fiction engaging race and genomics in manifesting the continuing confusion of fact and fiction concerning race as well as of literary critical approaches to cultural narratives of race. Her astute readings offer insight into how racism creates the conditions that produce "race" as a biological category justifying social and political hierarchies-a "biofiction," as she puts it--and how works of fiction challenge as they expose this process and how they imagine alternatives. The work of one of the foremost theorists of science and literature, Biofictions illustrates the importance of our cultural forms and our cultural critics in challenging the constantly mutating forms of racism that characterize contemporary life. * Priscilla Wald, Professor of English, Duke University, USA, author of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-09983-8 (9781350099838)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Josie Gill is Lecturer in Black British Writing at the University of Bristol, UK.
Content
Introduction
1. The Roots of African Eve: Science Writing on Human Origins and Alex Haley's Roots
2. Race, Genetic Ancestry Tracing and Facial Expression: "Focusing on the Faces" in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go
3. "One Part Truth and Three Parts Fiction": Race, Science and Narrative in Zadie Smith's White Teeth
4. "The Sick Swollen Heart of This Land": Pharmacogenomics, Racial Medicine and Colson Whitehead's Apex Hides the Hurt
5. Mutilation and Mutation: Epigenetics and Racist Environments in Octavia Butler's Kindred and Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
1. The Roots of African Eve: Science Writing on Human Origins and Alex Haley's Roots
2. Race, Genetic Ancestry Tracing and Facial Expression: "Focusing on the Faces" in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go
3. "One Part Truth and Three Parts Fiction": Race, Science and Narrative in Zadie Smith's White Teeth
4. "The Sick Swollen Heart of This Land": Pharmacogenomics, Racial Medicine and Colson Whitehead's Apex Hides the Hurt
5. Mutilation and Mutation: Epigenetics and Racist Environments in Octavia Butler's Kindred and Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index