Speculative fiction

The stories in Nameless in Z take place in the fictional city of Z, located on the northwestern coast of the US. The throughline of this collection tracks alternate versions of the same male narrator as he subconsciously pursues relationships in an attempt to supplant his own destructive addictions. The first half of this book dwells more in the relationship aspect, while the second half owns up to the consequences of the first half.
Each story involves the titular city tormenting the narrator in a way that physically and/or spiritually manifests his specific addiction. Speculative fiction elements hang around the fringes of each of these stories, typically through different forms of the supernatural. The purpose of this work is to give a voice to underrepresented aspects of addiction and to disentangle my own demons; the ones I’ve inherited as well as the ones I’ve created as a direct result.

This thesis uses an identity studies approach to look at the representation of BIPOC characters within three young adult speculative fiction: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Black Witch by Laurie Forest, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer. By incorporating identity studies to explore and analyze examples of misrepresentation and unconscious bias throughout stories centered on oppressive world building, racial hierarchies, this thesis draws upon the works of various scholars including: Stuart Hall, Michel Foucault, Orlando Patterson, Toni Morrison, and Edward Said. A lack of diverse authors and Eurocentrically-framed ideologies cemented into the publishing industry has led to instances of unconscious racialized misrepresentations of BIPOC characters as shown in the of three works of popular young adult fiction demonstrating the constraints created when authors shape and perpetuate identities for others, subjecting them to constructed identities and narratives.

Non-Anglophone voices in literature can lead to a better understanding of the intricate relationships shown by Ashley Dawson tying capitalism, slow violence, and uneven development to climate change. There is skepticism that science fiction (sf) in particular can properly present climate issues in the anthropocentric era that we live in today, but scholars such as Shelley Streeby argue against such perceptions. Science fiction writers that use magical realism, such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Nalo Hopkinson, as ecological sf have already accomplished the task of creating speculative works that fit in perfectly under the umbrella of “serious fictions.” These writers work from a non-Anglophone perspective or from a minority group within a Western society, allowing for different modes of thinking to play a part in these bigger discourses. Writers, educators, and other scholars need to reestablish humanity’s kinship with nature.

Included is a collection of speculative fiction by author Nicholas Becher
that incorporates research from Cherokee folklore as well as experimental
perspectives of place and tone.