Moving Beyond Melancholia: The Emancipation Of African American Woman Dana In Butler's Kindred

Octavia Estelle Butler is one of the few black women writers in the science-fiction circle, however, the famous novel Kindred poses a challenge to those seeking to situate it in Butler's science-fiction genre. In Kindred, Butler departs from fantasies to focus on the realistic depiction of strong and independent black female selves under attack. The narrative gives voice to the legitimate anxiety surrounding the strongly emerging African American self of the 20th century in general and the 1970s in particular. The self is hindered in its ascent by racist white identity politics that romanticizes the antebellum South. The narrative also expresses a melancholic yearning for a renewed presence of African Americans.Because Kindred uses the technique of time travel in science fiction, many researchers pay attention to the narrative strategy of this novel. Although some discuss the theme, most of them concentrate on the gender roles and racism. But there is no paper that specially expounds the theme of"melancholia", and actually it is an important perspective to understand Octavia Butler's work. Butler's text broke boundaries between past and present to make the unknown trauma of slavery a reality for contemporary readers. This origin of trauma can be located in the psychic processes of the African American female protagonist Dana. In this process, melancholia is an important psychological element. It develops gradually. First the origin of Dana's melancholia is the melancholia of white male ancestor Rufus, especially his Oedipal sentiment and burning desires for Dana. Then the melancholia of Dana develops further through the manifestation of melancholia attachments, which is the strengthening melancholic control of Rufus over Dana and the factor of rape and violence. At last Dana rejects the status of object and explores the possibility toward emancipation. So Octavia Butler's Kindred provides readers with a carefully constructed, complicated melancholic scenario that at once explores the role of melancholia in Dana's formation of the African American self, and she adopts the way to preserve the racial identity and resist the oppression of white male ancestor.For the enslaved black woman Dana, melancholia is not only one response to the pain inflicted by white melancholic actions, but also a political act of resistance to the denial of black citizenship. It proves that this novel not only reflects the class oppression, but also points to the bright prospects for the African Americans, which is significant for the literature research.