Midnight Robber Queens: Nalo Hopkinson and Speculative Fiction

The term "speculative fiction" appears to be another one of those "semantically unstable" formulations that has been disputed by authorities within the genre, and within its parent genre of science fiction. For our purposes, let it suffice to refer to "speculative" novels as those that imagine alternate realities, invert convention, and experiment with gender and racial roles. Some authors of this variety of fiction engage elements of Magical Realism: a literary mode that utilizes the fantastic, the paranormal, the incredible, to cast a critical eye on one's own reality.

Few Africana authors have been drawn to this variety of fiction; however, in 1931, journalist George Schuyler introduced the first speculative fiction written by an African American novelist, Black No More: a novel that featured elements of the Detective Novel. This novel introduced the character of Dr. Crookman, a scientist who develops a process that will turn black people white. The novel, with its absurdist themes, takes a biting, satirical look at race relations in the Harlem Renaissance era. Since this time, few African American writers delved into this variety of fiction. It was not until the 1970s, and the emergence of the Black Women's Literary Renaissance, that the public began to see fiction by African American authors that engaged the fantastic, the folk, the surreal, and the supernatural. Novels like Toni Morrison's Beloved has been categorized as "Magical Realist" or "Speculative," though the author contests that categorization. Nevertheless, Morrison's novel invokes the kind of authorial experimentation and fantastic themes that were fueling the imaginations of black women authors in the United States. Common themes among the Black Women's Renaissance featured a protagonist who embodied a "fractured" self: an individual who, in the face of of modernity and modernization had gradually become distanced from a sense of community and belonging. The remedy, she discovers, is to reconnect to her heritage and community. Only through a reunion with one's community could one heal herself and become whole again.  The methods of this reunion could take many forms and interpretations, but the end objective was the same.

Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters represents one of many instances in which the novel combines themes of the supernatural, a return to nurturing folkways, and a reunion with Community. There is also a discernible experimentation with form and time sequence in this novel that mirrors the 'circular' tradition of storytelling common among Africana peoples. Added to the growing sense of reevaluation of folkways, the nourishing effect of the localized community, there is also a growing sensitivity concerning broader relationships with the diaspora.

Octavia Butler is widely considered to be the progenitor of the "Afro-Futurist" or Science Fiction novel written by an African American author. However, Butler's fiction focused away from the themes of the Renaissance. Writers who followed her, like Tananarive Due, Valjeanne Jeffers, and Nalo Hopkinson, reveal a decided preoccupation with cultural, folk, and diasporic themes. Nalo Hopkinson's second novel, Midnight Robber, casts Africana history in a futuristic, speculative setting, and re-envisions the Middle Passage, slavery, and freedom in a distinctly Caribbean setting.

Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica, but she lived in various places throughout the Caribbean: Guyana, and Trinidad, before settling in Canada. Hopkinson's fiction draws heavily from Caribbean oral tradition and folk culture, often reproducing the dialect of her Trinidadian heritage in her novels such as Midnight Robber, The Salt Roads, and Brown Girl in the Ring. Much of her work is female-centered, featuring a strong, independent female protagonist who, by dint of unforeseen conflict, must return to her roots to reconcile the conflict. In the clip below, Hopkinson reflects on the legacy of slavery:


                   

Photo: Goodreads.com