Arboreal dialogics: an ecocritical exploration of Octavia Butler's Dawn

Abstract

Critical essays postulating Octavia Butler's myriad literary works abound. However, ecocritical perspectives through which these assessments occur are few. Moreover, ecocritical analyses as they relate to Afro-diasporic histories have been sparsely developed. In this piece the author argues for a hybrid African Diasporic/ecocritical assessment of Butler's Dawn in three dynamic sections: ‘New beginnings’, ‘Metamorphoses/polymorphisms’ and ‘Science fiction/speculative fiction and Afrofuturism’. The first section syntactically critiques the book's – and trilogy's – title(s), and how they relate to notions of hegemony. The second section mediates self-identity in relation to social and ecological environments, particularly corporeal invasion and colonial subjectivities. Finally, the third section highlights the Afro-Diasporic voice represented in Dawn and its relation to cultural memories. Through these topics, the author not only explores ecological dialogics presented by Butler, but also intersections between gender, culture, society and nature – transcending traditional binaries in order to present a heteroglossia of ecocritical critiques.