Content area

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Caribbean science fiction (SF) engages with resistance, identity, and futurity through the figure of Caliban. Drawing from The Tempest and Roberto Fernández Retamar’s Caliban (1971), this study explores how SF subverts colonial discourses, reclaims monstrosity, and imagines alternative futures. Through an analysis of three novels—Dealing in Dreams (2019) by Lilliam Rivera, La mucama de Omicunlé (2015) by Rita Indiana, and Fábulas de una abuela extraterrestre (1988) by Daína Chaviano—this project highlights how SF integrates Afro-Taíno spiritualities, anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal critiques, and speculative temporalities to forge alternative epistemologies beyond Western paradigms. The dissertation is structured around three core concepts: violence, monstrosity, and fear. The first chapter situates SF within a Caribbean context, tracing its role as a counter-hegemonic discourse contesting dominant historical and ideological narratives. The second chapter explores Dealing in Dreams and its critique of systemic violence, particularly its deconstruction of utopian and dystopian models through a queer lens. The third chapter examines monstrosity and hybridity in La mucama de Omicunlé, analyzing how Rita Indiana challenges Western notions of identity, history, and progress through Afro-Caribbean and Taíno cosmovisions and nonlinear temporalities. The final chapter considers fear as both a tool of control and resistance, assessing how Fábulas de una abuela extraterrestre subverts ideological oppression and reclaims speculative imagination as defiance. By positioning SF as a space of radical imagination, this dissertation argues that the genre serves as a critical response to colonialism, and sociopolitical oppression, ultimately transforming Caliban into a figure of speculative rebellion.

Details

1010268
Title
Redescubriendo a Caliban: Futurismos Monstruosos en Tres Novelas de Ciencia Ficcion por Autoras del Caribe Hispano
Alternate title
Rediscovering Caliban: Monstrous Futurisms in Three Science Fiction Novels by Women Authors From the Hispanic Caribbean
Number of pages
177
Publication year
2025
Degree date
2025
School code
0183
Source
DAI-A 87/1(E), Dissertation Abstracts International
ISBN
9798290633688
Committee member
Kinnally, Cara A.; Stephenson, Marcia C.; Dixon, Paul B.
University/institution
Purdue University
University location
United States -- Indiana
Degree
Ph.D.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
32123967
ProQuest document ID
3255630919
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/redescubriendo-caliban-futurismos-monstruosos-en/docview/3255630919/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Database
ProQuest One Academic