Bombs, Bodies, and Ghosts: Navigating Rhetorical Legacies of Nuclear Technology in Recent Caribbean Science Fiction

Samuel Ginsburg

doi:10.5565/rev/mitologias.718

Abstract

This article examines the rhetorical power of nuclear weapons, and how recent Caribbean science fiction has challenged popular nuclear archives. Dominican author Rey Emmanuel Andújar’s story “Gameon” (2014), speculates on the environmental, human, and geopolitical effects of nuclear war. Next, Cuban author Yasmín Silvia Portales’s story “Las extrañas decisiones de Vladimir Denísovich Jiménez” (2016), asks if there is a place for queerness within a power structure based on nuclear supremacy. Finally, Cuban author Erick Mota’s novella Trabajo Extra (2014) uses radioactive materials to discuss labor exploitation and alternative modes of development. These texts challenge colonizing nuclear rhetoric by creating spaces for proper mourning and remembrance.

Highlights

Resumen: este artículo analiza el poder retórico de las armas nucleares y la forma en que la ciencia ficción reciente ha desafiado los populares archivos nucleares
El relato “Las extrañas decisiones de Vladimir Denísovich Jiménez” (2016), de la autora cubana Yasmín Silvia Portales, se pregunta si existe un lugar para lo queer en el marco de una estructura de poder basada en la supremacía nuclear
While the planning of this monument, including an international architecture competition, had started before he came to power, Trujillo saw the massive project as symbol of the Dominican Republic’s European, Christian, and capitalist ideals, and as a way to publicly display this historical link to Columbus on an international stage

Summary

Introduction

Resumen: este artículo analiza el poder retórico de las armas nucleares y la forma en que la ciencia ficción reciente ha desafiado los populares archivos nucleares. This article examines the ways in which science fiction can reshape and contest the colonizing rhetoric and narratives surrounding the historical deployment of nuclear weapons in the Caribbean.

Results

Conclusion