Date of Award
Fall 12-11-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Program
Global Arts and Cultures
First Advisor
Leora Maltz-Leca
Second Advisor
Naimah Petigny
Abstract
Analysis of Enlightenment philosphes reveals how the contemporary archetypes, mutants, cyborgs and dhampirs may be situated as sources for understanding mixed race positionality. Arranged on a trajectory of hybrid mythology reaching from ancient times into the present day, their contemporary relevance is put into context. Through modern speculative fiction, historical mythology and the theoretical frameworks of sociology, and philosophy, two tropes are revealed to be imposed roles for mixed race people. The first one, the tragic hybrid is a term which references a character specific to the context of American colonial slavery, the tragic mulatto. By reframing the term, tragic hybrid, hybrid archetypes who match similar narrative themes beyond both the 18th and 19th centuries and the Black/White binary are included. The second trope, the extinctionhacker, is a term coined by extending Cultural Studies professor Felecia Rose Caton-Garcia’s recent term, the futurehero. This is a character who not only triumphs above worldly troubles but saves the planet, specifically from mass extinction. These roles represent polar opposite experiences, one demonstrates advantages and hope, the other, conflicts and failure. Finding this binary model to be troubled by its limited range, this thesis traces an epistemology of the concept of the human in Western thought from the Enlightenment through its postmodern criticism to the revitalization of animism within posthumanism. In the contemporary framework of posthumanism, the hybrid figure evolves away from anthropocentrism and the aforementioned binary tropes, through a radical hybrid imaginary and toward a multifaceted, rhizomatic mixed gaze which centers complexity, partiality, mutability and unpredictability.
Recommended Citation
Jackson, Kobe, "Mixed Race Futurity Through Contemporary Archetypes: Mutants, Cyborgs and Dhampirs" (2024). Masters Theses. 1350.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1350
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