Dis-orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction

Isiah Lavender (III)

University Press of Mississippi, 2017 - Fiction - 267 pages

With contributions by:

Suparno Banerjee, Cait Coker, Jeshua Enriquez, Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Malisa Kurtz, Stephanie Li, Bradford Lyau, Uppinder Mehan, Graham J. Murphy, Baryon Tensor Posadas, Amy J. Ransom, Robin Anne Reid, Haerin Shin, Stephen Hong Sohn, Takayuki Tatsumi, and Timothy J. Yamamura

Isiah Lavender III's Dis-Orienting Planets amplifies critical issues surrounding the racial and ethnic dimensions of science fiction. This edited volume explores depictions of Asia and Asians in science fiction literature, film, and fandom with particular regard to China, Japan, India, and Korea.

Dis-Orienting Planets highlights so-called yellow and brown peoples from the constellation of a historically white genre. The collection launches into political representations of Asian identity in science fiction's imagination, from fear of the Yellow Peril and its racist stereotypes to techno-Orientalism and the remains of a postcolonial heritage. Thus the essays, by contributors such as Takayuki Tatsumi, Veronica Hollinger, Uppinder Mehan, and Stephen Hong Sohn, reconfigure the very study of race in science fiction.

A follow-up to Lavender's Black and Brown Planets, this new collection expands the racial politics governing the renewed visibility of Asia in science fiction. One of the few on this subject, the volume probes Gary Shteyngart's novel Super Sad True Love Story, the acclaimed film Cloud Atlas, and Guillermo del Toro's monster film Pacific Rim, among others. Dis-Orienting Planets embarks on a wide-ranging assessment of Asian representations in science fiction, upon the determination that our visions of the future must include all people of color.

About the author

Isiah Lavender III is Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at the University of Georgia, where he researches and teaches courses in African American literature and science fiction. He is author of Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Prehistory of a Movement; editor of Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction and Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction, both published by University Press of Mississippi; and coeditor of Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dis-orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction
• Editor: Isiah Lavender (III)
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 2017
• ISBN: 1496811526, 9781496811523
• Length: 267 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Science Fiction / General; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy; Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Culture, Race & Ethnicity; Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General; Performing Arts / Film / Genres / Science Fiction & Fantasy; Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General; Social Science / Popular Culture