cfp.english.upenn.edu

When Junot Díaz’s protagonist in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) asks the question “What more sci-fi than the Santo Domingo? What more fantasy than the Antilles?” he both draws our attention to the affinity that the geographical space of the Caribbean has for the fantastical elements of science fiction (SF) and also possibly indicts the critics of the genre for their lack of acknowledgement of the narratives from this area that might fit its characteristics. This panel seeks papers that support Oscar’s assertion. Papers may address the works in SF of writers from the Caribbean/Latin American diaspora, meditations on why these writers have been marginalized in this genre, new discoveries of writers or texts that should be classified as SF from the Caribbean/Latin American diaspora, or how the Caribbean/Latin American geographical space has been addressed in North American SF. Please submit paper proposals of approximately 300 words with your name and academic affiliation to akb1@mit.edu by January 4, 2010.