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Bodyminds Reimagined

(Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction

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Bodyminds Reimagined

By: Sami Schalk
Narrated by: Renee Reed
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In Bodyminds Reimagined Sami Schalk traces how Black women's speculative fiction complicates the understanding of bodyminds - the intertwinement of the mental and the physical - in the context of race, gender, and (dis)ability. Bridging Black feminist theory with disability studies, Schalk demonstrates that this genre's political potential lies in the authors' creation of bodyminds that transcend reality's limitations. She reads (dis)ability in neo-slave narratives by Octavia Butler (Kindred) and Phyllis Alesia Perry (Stigmata) not only as representing the literal injuries suffered under slavery, but also as a metaphor for the legacy of racial violence. The fantasy worlds in works by N. K. Jemisin, Shawntelle Madison, and Nalo Hopkinson - where werewolves have obsessive-compulsive-disorder and blind demons can see magic - destabilize social categories and definitions of the human, calling into question the very nature of identity. In these texts, as well as in Butler’s Parable series, able-mindedness and able-bodiedness are socially constructed and upheld through racial and gendered norms. Outlining (dis)ability's centrality to speculative fiction, Schalk shows how these works open new social possibilities while changing conceptualizations of identity and oppression through non-realist contexts.

©2018 Duke University Press (P)2022 Audible, Inc.
African American Literary History & Criticism People with Disabilities Fiction Fantasy Science Fiction Science Fiction Literary Criticism

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The scholarship to which we should all aspire!

Sami Schalk’s brilliant and thorough reading of some of the best texts of speculative fiction ever written affirms the powerful importance of challenging the commonly accepted rules of reality and sparking imagination in tackling some of the most lasting and harmful oppressions, particularly in the context of their multiple intersections. Schalk’s work is a thrilling example of clear and effective academic writing, communicating complexity and deep intellectual engagement in truly accessible language. I learnt so much from listening to this (a particularly helpful aid to my own neurodivergent and chronically ill bodymind) AND from combing through the written text, especially the footnotes. I’m only sorry that I didn’t get around to reading this one earlier! Excited to dive into more of Schalk’s work.

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