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Location
Albuquerque, NM
Document Type
Paper
Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm
Start Date
30-7-2022 11:00 AM
End Date
30-7-2022 11:50 AM
Description
One of the central claims of my book The Latinx Files: Race, Migration, and Space Aliens, is that the cultural figure of the space alien is more fruitfully conceived of as a Multitude rather than an Other. The space alien framed as Other may be helpful in critiquing Anglo-American works of science fiction, but it is less useful when it comes to the space alien in Latinx science fiction. This essay will examine a number of works of Latinx science fiction to draw out the details of this claim. I will begin by pointing to the multiplicity of allegories and migrations in the comics of Lalo Alcaraz and the short story “Room for Rent” by Richie Narvaez. Next I will examine Tato Laviera’s poem “Puerto Rico’s Chupacabras,” which uses depictions of the Chupacabras, both fictional and real, to express various political, philosophical, and cultural perspectives about being Puerto Rican. Finally, I will examine Gloria Anzaldúa’s use of the space alien as a central metaphor, and in particular, her concept of the alien consciousness, a way of being that is tolerant of ambiguity, contradiction, and perplexity, and that does not think dualistically but rather embraces multiplicity. The essay ends by investigating the political ramifications of the embodiment of the alien consciousness in Latinx science fiction and the further effects of thinking of the space alien as a Multitude.
Included in
The Space Alien as a Multitude in Latinx Science Fiction
Albuquerque, NM
One of the central claims of my book The Latinx Files: Race, Migration, and Space Aliens, is that the cultural figure of the space alien is more fruitfully conceived of as a Multitude rather than an Other. The space alien framed as Other may be helpful in critiquing Anglo-American works of science fiction, but it is less useful when it comes to the space alien in Latinx science fiction. This essay will examine a number of works of Latinx science fiction to draw out the details of this claim. I will begin by pointing to the multiplicity of allegories and migrations in the comics of Lalo Alcaraz and the short story “Room for Rent” by Richie Narvaez. Next I will examine Tato Laviera’s poem “Puerto Rico’s Chupacabras,” which uses depictions of the Chupacabras, both fictional and real, to express various political, philosophical, and cultural perspectives about being Puerto Rican. Finally, I will examine Gloria Anzaldúa’s use of the space alien as a central metaphor, and in particular, her concept of the alien consciousness, a way of being that is tolerant of ambiguity, contradiction, and perplexity, and that does not think dualistically but rather embraces multiplicity. The essay ends by investigating the political ramifications of the embodiment of the alien consciousness in Latinx science fiction and the further effects of thinking of the space alien as a Multitude.
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythcon/mc52/schedule/7
Comments
Paper: Matthew Goodwin
“The Space Alien as a Multitude in Latinx Science Fiction”
Tech Mod: Jessica Dickinson Goodman