1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910420856403321

Autore

Gill Josie

Titolo

Biofictions : race, genetics and the contemporary novel / / Josie Gill

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bloomsbury Academic, 2020

London England : , : Bloomsbury Publishing, , 2020

London : , : Bloomsbury Publishing, , 2020

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (208 pages)

Collana

Explorations in science and literature

Disciplina

823.92093529

Soggetti

English fiction - 20th century - History and criticism

American fiction - 20th century - History and criticism

English fiction - 21st century - History and criticism

American fiction - 21st century - History and criticism

Race in literature

Science in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction 1. The Roots of African Eve: Science Writing on Human Origins and Alex Haley's Roots 2. Race, Genetic Ancestry Tracing and Facial Expression: "Focusing on the Faces" in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go 3. "One Part Truth and Three Parts Fiction": Race, Science and Narrative in Zadie Smith's White Teeth 4. "The Sick Swollen Heart of This Land": Pharmacogenomics, Racial Medicine and Colson Whitehead's Apex Hides the Hurt 5. Mutilation and Mutation: Epigenetics and Racist Environments in Octavia Butler's Kindred and Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses Conclusion Bibliography Index

Sommario/riassunto

"In this important interdisciplinary study, Josie Gill explores how the contemporary novel has drawn upon, and intervened in, debates about race in late 20th and 21st century genetic science. Reading works by leading contemporary writers including Zadie Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, Octavia Butler and Colson Whitehead, Biofictions demonstrates how ideas of race are produced at the intersection of science and fiction, which together create the stories about identity, racism, ancestry and



kinship which characterize our understanding of race today. By highlighting the role of narrative in the formation of racial ideas in science, this book calls into question the apparent anti-racism of contemporary genetics, which functions narratively, rather than factually or objectively, within the racialized contexts in which it is embedded. In so doing, Biofictions compels us to rethink the long-asked question of whether race is a biological fact or a fiction, calling instead for a new understanding of the relationship between race, science and fiction."--