TY - BOOK ID - 86041993 TI - Speculative blackness : the future of race in science fiction PY - 2016 SN - 9780816678952 9780816678969 0816678952 0816678960 145294976X PB - Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, DB - UniCat KW - American fiction KW - Science fiction, American KW - Race in literature. KW - African Americans in mass media. KW - African Americans in popular culture KW - African American authors KW - History and criticism. KW - Race in literature KW - African Americans in mass media KW - History and criticism KW - Science fiction [American ] KW - Brandon, Carl Joshua KW - Carr, Terry KW - Star Trek television programs KW - Barnes, Steven KW - Icon (comic books) KW - American fiction - African American authors - History and criticism KW - Science fiction, American - History and criticism UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:86041993 AB - In Speculative Blackness, Andre M. Carrington analyzes the highly racialized genre of speculative fiction-including science fiction, fantasy, and utopian works, along with their fan cultures-to illustrate the relationship between genre conventions in media and the meanings ascribed to blackness in the popular imagination. Carrington's argument about authorship, fandom, and race in a genre that has been both marginalized and celebrated offers a black perspective on iconic works of science fiction. He examines the career of actor Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed the character Uhura in the original Star Trek television series and later became a recruiter for NASA, and the spin-off series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, set on a space station commanded by a black captain. He recovers a pivotal but overlooked moment in 1950s science fiction fandom in which readers and writers of fanzines confronted issues of race by dealing with a fictitious black fan writer and questioning the relevance of race to his ostensible contributions to the 'zines. Carrington mines the productions of Marvel comics and the black-owned comics publisher Milestone Media, particularly the representations of black sexuality in its flagship title, Icon. He also interrogates online fan fiction about black British women in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Harry Potter series. Throughout this nuanced analysis, Carrington theorizes the relationship between race and genre in cultural production, revealing new understandings of the significance of blackness in twentieth-century American literature and culture. ER -