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2. The Alien in Us Metaphors of Transgression in the Work of Octavia E. Butler If you deny any affinity with another person or kind of person, if you declare it to be wholly different from yourself . . . you may hate it, or deify it; but in either case you have denied its spiritual equality, and its human reality. You have made it into a thing, to which the only possible relationship is a power relationship. And thus you have fatally impoverished your own reality. You have, in fact, alienated yourself. —Ursula Le Guin, ‘‘American sf and the Other’’ O ctavia Butler’s fiction acknowledges the complex construction of gender in relation to factors such as race and class, and the desire to find representations that correspond to one’s own experiences , not those of a ‘‘master identity’’ that constructs them as other.1 Butler’s writing shares with feminist theories examined here the insistence on multiple subject positions grounded in particular historical moments, the idea of ‘‘identity as a site of differences’’ (Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects 157), not sameness. In accordance with these theories , Butler conceptualizes multiple subjectivity as an element that has grown from fragmentation, displacement, and loss. In its contradictory makeup and often painful experiences, this multiple subjectivity creates spaces of disjunction that carry the potential for resistance. The focus of this analysis of Butler’s representations of difference will be on her dismantling of the Western construction of dualisms of self and other, based on categories of sameness (normative) and difference (deviant), which form a relationship of power that is naturalized and not open to change (see Plumwood 47–48). Butler counters the construction of dualisms by assuming multiple, contradictory notions of self that undermine the binary and by creating an alternative way to view difference—as an essential part of the self, not something to create boundaries against. These approaches result in the strategy of em- 68 DIFFERENCE, IDENTITY, AND COLONIAL EXPERIENCE bracing difference: neither upholding nor denying it, but accepting it as a part of identity. Her writings respond to Audre Lorde’s call for ‘‘new patterns of relating across difference’’ (Lorde, ‘‘Age, Race, Class, and Sex’’ 123): ‘‘Now we must recognize differences among women who are our equals, neither inferior nor superior, and devise ways to use each other’s difference to enrich our visions and our joint struggles’’ (122). In Butler’s work, difference is used as a tool of creativity to question multiple forms of repression and dominance: she destabilizes categories of gender as well as race and exposes the process of differentiation . In doing so, she distances herself from feminist writings (theoretical and fictional) that celebrate the general category of ‘‘woman,’’ as well as from those who, in a simplified fashion, romanticize ethnic and cultural heritages. Butler writes against mainstream perception, in which the subjectivity of women of color, instead of being conceptualized within its own framework, is understood as sentimental and personal. She always remains critical of unambiguous and seemingly unproblematic approaches to dealing with difference and power. Instead of creating fictional relations based on one-dimensional theoretical models, Butler’s narratives are infused with contradictions and dilemmas that mirror unresolved conflicts within feminist discourse. They explore how generalized theoretical implications clash with the specificity of situations in which characters find themselves, and with desires and drives that interfere with simple solutions. Butler’s narratives interweave two main contradictory themes: colonial experiences and resistance (as discussed in Chapter 1), and affirmative encounters with difference—the focus of this chapter. So while the context often is that of a colonial encounter, Butler is interested in exploring the ways in which difference is conceptualized not as oppositional but as complementary to identity.2 Difference is solidified through markers that identify it as nonnormative. These markers in turn are defined by boundaries that enclose the subject. Butler’s writing is filled with symbolic boundaries that represent the attempt to define the self, to negotiate identity in relation to difference. These boundaries and their markers constantly shift, making it impossible to establish a subject position based on a stable identity. Thus, boundary crossing is the main characteristic of Butler’s representations of difference, the main ‘‘ingredient’’ of her fluid subjectivity, which emphasizes a denaturalization of categories—it means refusing [3.144.36.141] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 06:20...

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