The Black Imagination

is an interdisciplinary series which examines the intellectual traditions of and cultural contributions made by people of African descent throughout the world. Whether it is in literature, art, music, science, or academics, these contributions are vast and far-reaching. Tthis series offers a unique opportunity to study the social,economic, and political forces that have shaped the historic experience of Black America.

Sandra Jackson is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Director of the Center for Black Diaspora at DePaul University. Her areas of research and teaching include feminist theory, cultural studies, utopian and dystopian literature and film, women’s autobiography, gender and education. Previous books include coedited works: and . Julie E. Moody-Freeman is Associate Professor of African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul University. Her work on Caribbean literature and Black speculative fiction has appeared in the journals and in the edited collection .

Contents: Sandra Jackson/Julie Moody-Freeman: Introduction. The Black Imagination and the Genres: Science Fiction, Futurism and the Speculative – Madhu Dubey: The Future of Race in Afro-Futurist Fiction – Adilifu Nama: Brave Black Worlds: Black Superheroes as Science Fiction Ciphers – Micheal Charles Pounds: «Explorers» - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Alisa K. Braithwaite: Connecting to a Future Community: Storytelling, the Database, and Nalo Hopkinson’s – Shannon Gibney: Science Fiction, Feminism and Blackness: The Multifaceted Import of Octavia Butler’s Work – Amie Breeze Harper: The Absence of Meat in Oankali Dietary Philosophy: An Eco-Feminist-Vegan Analysis of Octavia Butler’s – Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Speculative Poetics: Audre Lorde as Prologue for Queer Black Futurism – Marie-Luise Loeffler: «Why white people feel they got to mark us?»: Bodily Inscription, Healing and Maternal «Plots of Power» in Jewelle Gomez’s «Louisiana1850» – Brandon Kempner: The Unshakable Intent to Commit Genocide : Walter Mosely’s , 9/11 and Politics out of Context – Debbie Olson: Techno-Utopia and the Search for Saaraba (1989) – Stepahnie Larrieux: Towards a Black Science Fiction Cinema: The Slippery Signifier of Race and the Films of Will Smith. Inhaltsverzeichnis