Shapeshifting in Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed and Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon

Abstract

This study examines shapeshifting as a post-colonial metaphor of race, gender and resistance in the novels Wild Seed and Lagoon. In both science fiction novels, the conceptions of race and gender are highlighted through portrayals of shapeshifting and the post¬¬-human. From this position, this study explores the ways in which novelists, Octavia Butler, in Wild Seed, and Nnedi Okorafor, in Lagoon in particular, deploy shapeshifting, that is, the blurring and destabilization of boundaries, as a tool for aesthetic and socio-political engagement in postcolonial and post-independence narratives. In both novels, the technology of the immortal shapeshifters does not threaten the nature/culture nor does it serve colonialism. Indeed, science and knowledge are productive and shared among people. Shapeshifting is a narrative device in postcolonial science fiction that functions as a mode of resistance against colonialism, oppression and imperialism in different historical contexts in both novels. This study demonstrates how shapeshifting symbolically facilitates a process of decolonization by resisting and altering received constructions of gender and race. Furthermore, it explores effective sites of decolonization aiming at demonstrating “resistant” identities represented as an immortal shapeshifter in Wild Seed and an extraterrestrial in Lagoon. Wild Seed and Lagoon, deploy the juxtaposition of traditional magical elements with science fictional materials, and the way the shapeshifting protagonists establish justice in society.

Shapeshifting est un dispositif narratif de la science-fiction postcoloniale qui fonctionne comme un mode de résistance contre le colonialisme, l'oppression et l'impérialisme dans différents contextes historiques des deux romans. Cette étude montre comment shapeshifting facilite symboliquement un processus de décolonisation en résistant et en modifiant les constructions reçues de genre et de race. En outre, il explore des sites de décolonisation efficaces visant à démontrer des identités «résistantes» représentées comme une protagoniste immortel dans Wild Seed et un extraterrestre dans Lagoon. Wild Seed et Lagoon déploient la juxtaposition d’éléments magiques traditionnels avec des matériaux de science-fiction, ainsi que la manière dont les protagonistes établissent la justice dans la société.